Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound
by Jin Shirinue
Summary: What Kagome wasn't the only one to be pulled down the well on her fifteenth birthday. And what if this person had his own unique set of powers. Inuyasha, Kamen Rider Hibiki Crossover. implied KagomexOc, acted SangoxOc, hinted AyamexOc, chapter 5 changed.
1. Opening Theme

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure sound

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure sound

A fanfiction by Jin Shirinue

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

Opening theme

We see Kagome about to fall down the sacred well for the first time. But a hand reaches out to try and grab her. This hand goes to a boy wearing headphones, glasses, and a necklace that seems to have a small tuneing attached to it. This is her friend Jin, as he trys to grab her he also falls into the well.

jikan no nami wo tsukamaete  
imasugu ni yukou yakusoku no basho  
genkai mugen iza tobikome Climax Jump!

ii jan! ii jan! sugee jan?!  
ii jan! ii jan! sugee jan?!

Instead of reaching the bottom the well as expected there is a bright pink light that surrounds both people. When they finally reach the bottom they finnaly climb back out and see that the higarashi shrine is no longer there.

kanaetai yume ga aru nara  
shinjinakucha negatta hibi wo

We then see the moment when Kagome frees Inuyasha from the tree to protect her and her friend from the maddened Lady centipede. Jin's eyes whide with shock and surprise at his friends apparent power.

Catch the wave  
mayoisou na toki kanarazu  
omoi no tsuyosa ga michibiku  
KIMI ga nozomu mirai sude ni  
In your hands

hajimari wa itsumo totsuzen  
unmei wo tsurete yuku Time tripin' ride  
fukannou koete tsukami toru sa Climax  
kawaru koto wo osorenai de  
ashita no jibun miushinau dake  
dare yori takai sora e tobou ze Climax Jump!

We then turn to the fight with Yura of the Demon Hair, she knocks Jin away from Kagome, and when he hits the ground his tuneing fork necklace hits a rock releasing powerfull sound waves, as the fork bounces up from the impact it passes over Jin's forhead making an Oni face appear. Jin's body is then surrounded by purple flames for several seconds. Then with a wave of his hand the flames dispurce leaving a strange looking demon in the stead of the dark haired teenager.

ii jan! ii jan! sugee jan?!  
ii jan! ii jan! sugee jan?!

mune no naka minna hisoka ni  
kaki kaetai kioku mo aru

Means nothing!  
atarashii asa wo matsu nara  
"ima" wo nurikaero soko kara  
honno sukoshi yuuki wo mote  
In your mind

We then see the demonized Jin holding a pair of large drumsticks, helping Inuyasha hold back his evil half-brother Sesshomaru. These large clubs somehow manageing to block and counter the poison claws.

tabitachi wa itsumo hitsuzen  
douse nara tobimaware Time tripin' ride  
sagashidasu no sa jibun dake no  
Climax  
kinou made no kioku subete  
hitsuyou to wakaru hi ga kuru HAZU  
hakoeru you ni sara naru Climax Jump!

Next we see young Shippo shortly after he joins the group sitting, not in the basket of Kagome's bike like one would think but on the sholder of the first oni of pure sound. The two showing what appears to be the beginning of a brotherly relationship.

kokoro wo tsuyoku suru  
daiji na kotoba toka  
kakegaenai omoide wo atumete  
mou sukoshi ato sukoshi...  
todokanai hoshizora  
akirametara soko ka shuuten sa

We then see Jin in human form talking to Miroku, knowing the perverted monk as well as we do, its most likely aobut the art of tact. But the subject clearly goes in one ear and out the other for when Kagome walks by, he ritualisticly fondles her behind, earning a powerful slap to the face from Kagome, and harty whack to the head from Jin, who has a large stress vein on his now armored forhead.

hajimari wa itsumo totsuzen  
unmei o tsurete yuku Time tripin' ride  
fukannou koete tsukami toru sa Climax  
kawaru koto wo osorenai de  
ashita no jibun miushinau dake  
dare yori takaku kinou yori takaku Climax Jump!

Next we see Jin sitting on a hill next to Sango, both of them looking up at the stars, with Kilala sitting in his lap. They turn to eachother and look like their about the say something, but the moment is ruined when their friends tumble out of a nearby shrub obviously spying on the two.

ii jan! ii jan! sugee jan?!  
ii jan! ii jan! sugee jan?!

Finally the group takes battle poses with Kilala in her giant form. With Sango, hand tight around her colossal boomerang, and Kagome, an arrow cocked and ready, sitting on the demon cat's back. Miroku is clutching his staff in both hands ready to swing at the nearest evil demon, Shippo standing on the sidelines cheering his friends on. While Inuyasha and the officially titled Kamen Rider Hibiki stand back to back, both ready to let loose their most powerful attacks.

Disclaimer 2: I also confess to not owning the song Climax jump or the show Kamen Rider Den-o both of these pieces of media entertainment belong to their official creators/writers, I just thought this would be a good theme song for my story.


	2. The pair who overcame time

Inuyasha and the power of pure sound

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

It is a time of great and terrible social unrest for a single corner of the world, the feudal era in Japan. Where rouges, bandits, and raging samurai traipse across the country side unchecked and unchallenged. Very few are safe from the terror of being attacked. Innocent women and children are cut down or raped, villages are burned, blood is spilled, and priceless treasures are stolen without a second thought. But with all periods of time change is due to come and the changes to the feudal era will be catalyzed by a very special group of people. And it is here that their story begins

We turn our attention towards one of the more peaceful areas of Japan, all is calm as birds sit in the trees singing their songs, while farmers work in the fields. All is calm until, a cry for action goes out. "Stop him he's getting away." 'He' is apparently a young man, with long silver hair, wearing a flowing red robe, with pair of the most feral looking yellow eyes that one has ever seen. But it is not these traits that are eye catching, its the two dog ears that stand out from the top of his head.

This strange man runs through a local village dodging the arrows and spears thrown by the villagers with incredible ease, all the while a malicious smirk plastered on his face. He then leaps a fantastic height over the armed men, landing on the roof of the local shrine. With an insidious chuckle the man rears back his right fist and with one well placed strike plows through landing inside. Using his sleeve to protect his sensitive nose from the powerful sacred incense burned inside the temple, the man finds the object of his desire. A necklace centered on the thread a between several, what appear to be bones, is a single purple jewel that shines with a radiance that could rival the sun.

Continuing his pattern the man swiftly shoots forward grabbing the necklace, mere seconds before a group of armed men plow through the temple doors knocking over incense burners starting a fire. With a sneer the dog leaps cleanly though the opposite side of the roof, again mere seconds before the building burst into flames with a colossal explosion. The man soars through the air, barely braking a sweat despite all he has done. Greedily clutching the jewel within his right hand, "Heh, at long last," he snarls with a sneer, "the opportunity to become a full demon is finally in my hands." The dog man quickly leaps across the land spanning dozens of feet within a singular jumps. But when victory is seemingly within the demons grasp, someone arises to stop him. A feminine voice rings out across the courtyard. "Inuyasha!" and there at the temple gates stands a woman, and from her attire it can be judged that she is a priestess. With an angry scowl on her face the woman pulls back the string on her bow, and after a mere second of aiming time lets the cocked arrow fly with a sharp wiz.

Her aim proves to be true for as the demon man is leaping in front of a tree the arrow strikes him in the left shoulder. The shock of the impact forces him to drop the jewel, and the speed of the projectile pins him to the tree, a look of pain twisting his face. The jewel lands on the ground with a light clink. The man now known as Inuyasha looks at his assailant, a look of confusion gracing his face. "Ki – Kikyo what, I thought ugh-" and with that the demon man passes into unconsciousness. The priestess Kikyo falls to her knees blood spurting from a deep gash on her shoulder. The various villagers rush to the aid of their priestess, among them a little girl with short black hair, wearing an orange kimono, a bandage wrapped around her right eye. The girl cries to the priestess, "sister Kikyo, sister Kikyo." One of the villagers also keels next to the Lady Kikyo, "Milady that wound -", the little girl, assumedly Kikyo's sister, finishes the man's though for him, "You're hurt really bad."

Lady Kikyo just stares at the simple jewel in her hand, "All of this, for the sacred jewel ugh." The pain of her injury quickly catches back up with Lady Kikyo, another villages steps forward and tries to help her. "Milady, you're in pain someone quickly help-." He is interrupted by the raven haired priestess, "I won't feel this pain much longer." She then turns to her sister, and with her hand shaking like a leaf passes the jewel to her. "And so I give this to you, the "Shikon no Tama," which you must burn with my body. It must not fall into the hands of those who would abuse it." And with her last breath spent the Lady Kikyo tumbles to the ground dead. Later that evening the body of the priestess is cremated with the "Shikon no Tama" in her hands, he final thought in this realm of existence is "I shall take the Shikon no Tama with me into the next world." But unknown to everyone there is another spectator to this tragedy, standing on a distant hill, is a strange warrior, his body (AN: I say he because it is difficult to tell the gender of anyone wearing Kamen rider gear) is encased from head to foot in intimidating blue armor, in his had is not a sword, nor a spear, nor an ax, but a bugle. The armored warrior simply scowls behind the visor of his helmet, turns his back to the funeral ceremony and begins to walk away, with only a single though going through his head. "Now one era ends, but another is about to begin."

**The Pair Who Overcame Time and the Boy Who Was Just Overcome**

Time passes, as it tends to, much to the chagrin of beautiful women everywhere. The vast fields are eventually filled to the brim with expansive cities, and the tiny village of the feudal era, has blossomed into the modern city of Tokyo. But in spite of the exciting grandness of the city our attention is focused in a very small corner of Tokyo, a small shrine placed seemingly haphazardly between the more modern buildings, the older building creating beautiful yet startling contrast in the modern street. Within the house of the compound sit two people a beautiful young woman, with long black hair, and a pair of sparkling brown eyes, wearing a pink sweat shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Sitting across from her is a elderly man wearing a priests outfit. "The Shikon no wha-?" asks the girl incredulously, the reason for the incredulousness in her voice is the small key chain in her hand across a small metallic rectangle is a short prayer, and beneath that is small marble, that looks remarkably like the purple jewel that almost started a small war many years ago. The old man replies in the wizened voice usually associated with ones elders, "The Shikon no Tama, my dear girl. "The Jewel of Four Souls"."

"Grandpa, you don't honestly think that tourists are gonna' actually buy these tacky things do you?" The old man scowls a little bit and sternly replies, "Kagome dear, that is not just a keychain, the crystal at the end is an authentic replica of an ancient jewel which, huh?" the old mans lecture apparently goes in one ear and out the other as Kagome, as now know her is using the keychain in her hand as a cat toy to play with her calico tabby "Buyo". The elder of the Higurashi family clears his through in a feeble attempt to regain his granddaughter's attention. "As I was saying, that crystal is a replica of an ancient jewel which -." Again the old man's lecture falls on deaf ears, as Kagome continues to play with Buyo. The conversation takes a different turn as Kagome changes the subject. "You do remember that it's my birthday tomorrow right?" The old man suddenly sweatdropps, whether he's embarrassed or surprised by this sudden change in conversation we'll never know for sure. The old man unsure of himself then says, "Well I was planning to wait another day but…." Kagome then interrupts her grandfather again, "So you did get me something let me see, let me see!"

In spite of her original excitement of receiving a present, her response to the gift itself proves she is less than thrilled at what she sees. In he hand is what appears to be a shriveled up alligator leg. With a large amount of pride and reverence in his voice Kagome's grandfather begins to prattle on about his gift. "That my dear, is an authentic mummified hand of a water imp that many years ago…" with a deadpan look on her face Kagome slowly lowers the "Water imp hand" down to Buyo's level and simply says. "Here Buyo, Eat." The cat grabes the mummified "demon remains" and takes off like a shoot, Kagome's grandfather close behind him shouting something about it being a antique or some such nonsense.

Kagome V.O: Replica this authentic that: everything here has a story.

Later that evening the family is sitting down to dinner, Grandfather Higurashi going into another one of his stories, this one a bit more bizarre than the others. "I tell you these pickles are full of history." "Not half as full as _you_ are." Kagome replies in a deadpan manner.

Kagome V.O: That's me Kagome Higurashi, age 15. The old man sitting in-front of me is my Grandfather, he's the head priest of our shrine, not that there are any other priests here any way. The squirt to my right is my little brother Souta, he's okay as far as little brothers go. The woman to my left is my mom, she loves me very much.

Meanwhile in darkening twilight we see someone walking down the street towards the shrine. Well walking is actually an understatement, what this person is doing is literally _dancing_ down the street. (A.N: play climax jump hip hop version) Closer examination reveals this person to be a young man either sixteen or seventeen years old with a big smile plastered on his face. He has short brown hair, wearing a simple black t-shirt under a grey jacket and a pair of jeans. His lively brown and bespectacled eyes are closed at the moment focusing on one of his accessories, the large headphones over his ears, clearly being the source of his desire to dance, and blocking out most outside distractions. He leaps and jumps around in a manner that would make most street dancers green with envy. As he moves up the shrine steps he pulls something out of the pocket on his jacket, and as the song blaring through his headphones comes to a close he pulls them off and knocks the door in-front of him, at this moment only one thought goes through his head. "I hope Kagome likes what I got her."

Inside the Higurashi home the knock on the door was clearly heard by the small family sitting down for dinner. Kagome seeing this as an opportunity to get away briefly from her grandfathers ramblings quickly shoots up from her place at the table. "I'll get it." Then as if she was shot out of a gun she rushes to the front door. Spending a second to make herself a smidge more presentable she slowly opens the door. "Excuse me, does a Miss Kagome Higurashi live here?" Before Kagome can give her reply the young man quickly interrupts her. "I don't hear an answer." Kagome simply giggles at her friends silly antics, "Konichiwa Jin." Her male friend smiles back at her, thinking "Kami-sama she has a beautiful smile," but simply saying "Konichiwa Kagome-chan."

Kagome V.O.: That's my good friend Jin Shirinui, an exchange student from America. When I first met him I thought he was kind of weird, but now that I've known him for over a year now I realized, that he is a little weird, but it's part of his charm I guess is what you would call it. He has a couple little quirks that make him who he is. The first gets on the nerves of the teachers constantly, he almost always wears those headphones and he is almost always listening to music, unless he's talking to someone that's when he takes them off. Another thing is that when my other friends and I first met him he was very shy around us, as he is around most people that he only just met, but now that we know him and he knows us, his personality did a complete 180 becoming one of the most emotionally open people I know. The last I still can't fully figure out, and that is the bizarre necklace he has around his neck, it's a simple string connected to a weird looking ornament, that for all intents and purposes looks like a small tuning fork. When I asked him about it, he said that is was something his late grandfather left him after he died, so I stopped asking about it after that. But there is something about it, whenever I look at it I get a weird feeling that I can't fully explain.

"So Jin what brings you out here at this time of night?" "well I was busy working on something and…" Jin's explanation is cut short as Kagome's mom comes wandering into the hall. "Who's as the door dear?" But upon seeing who is standing outside, Mrs. Higurashi suddenly gets a very wide smile on her face and then speaks to Jin in a seemingly overly polite manner. "Well, konichiwa Jin." Jin's eyes widen slightly and sweatdrops nervously. "Um, konichiwa Higurashi-san." Truth be told if it wasn't for Kagome's mom, the two probably wouldn't be as good friends as they are today, it was her that suggested that Kagome try to reach out to Jin and try to make friends with him, stating that he was probably shy and lonely and just needed someone to talk to. Long story short the two hit it off pretty quickly, and once she saw how handsome and how polite, and kind Jin is she made no secret in the fact that she thought the two would make a good couple, so she would try often to get the two together, _alone_, in the hopes that they would confess their feelings to one another. Needless to say the two teenagers quickly become embarrassed to almost no end when Kagome's mom gets involved with their relationship.

"So Jin what brings out here this evening?" asked Kagome's mom. "Well you see, I was working on something and I was hoping to give it," he is interrupted again by Kagome's mom, "I sure you can wait a little bit, you see we were just about to sit down and eat dinner, would you like to join us?" Jin caught in an unfamiliar situation sputters and stammers nervously. "W-well I-I wouldn't want to impose." "Oh, nonsense" replies Mrs. Higurashi, "you know you're always welcome into our home, come in sit down," nearly pulling poor Jin into the house, and his arm off in the process, whilst he cries "well if you insist." Kagome blushes atomic red at her mom's forwardness with her friend, she couldn't remember a time after she introduced Jin to her mom, when she didn't have to stress that she and Jin are _just friends_, nothing more. But her mom didn't want to seem to listen. When she returned to the table, she seen that her mom had somehow managed to convince Sota to scoot over and allow Jin to sit in his original spot putting him right next to her, her blush advances from atomic to full body, she quietly sits down next to her friend the two quietly glancing towards each other than quickly averting their gaze in pure embarrassment.

"So Jin what are you doing out here tonight?" Asks Sota, "well as I was saying, I know Kagome's birthday is tomorrow and I was going to give this to her after school but well, I just decided that the sooner I take care of this, the better." Jin then reaches back into his pocket and pulls out a square object wrapped in simple blue paper with a gold ribbon bow on top, "Happy early Birthday Kagome-chan." Kagome excitedly takes the package out of Jin's hands, "if you want to open it now go ahead." Gingerly Kagome unwraps the package, revealing a CD case, with a CD inside titled, "K-chans B-day mix", Jin then begins to explain the meaning of his gift "You see this is why I asked you who your favorite bands were last week, I've been busy making this, I hope you like it, it's got their best songs on there." Kagome looks the gift over for a little while before turning to her friend and then saying, "I love it thank you Jin." Punctuating the sentence with a quick peck on the cheek, to whit Kagome's grandfather starts sputtering at the audacity of a public display of affection between two people who are not man and wife, Sota responds as any little brother would, by making gagging sounds, Kagome's mom's smile gets even wider proving that it was indeed physically possible to do so, and the two teenagers simply blush in embarrassment. Each for a different reason, at this moment Kagome is thinking, "Oh no, why did I do that? I feel like such an idiot right now." While Jin had one thought rolling through his stunned and currently hormone addled teenage brain, "She kissed me, she kissed me."

The next morning we find Kagome ready to head to school, wearing the female uniform for her high school, a white shirt tied off with a red ribbon, and a green skirt. She heads out the front door calling back inside to her mom, "Mom, Jin's here were heading off to school now." "Okay sweetie you two have fun now." replies her mom, causing Kagome to blush for the nth time in less than 14 hours. As she walks off to meet Jin in front of the compound, she sees Sota standing in front of the well house. "Hey, what are you doing?" she asks, Sota turns towards his older sister, revealing that he's holding a bowl of cat food, and replies with a nervous sounding, "Nothing!" Kagome puts her hands on her hips a adapts the superior older sibling tone, "You're not supposed to play in there you know." Sota then replies, "I'm not, it's the cat." They both stare into the dark building unable to see old Buyo with the limited amount of light created by the open door. Both begin to wonder "did he go into the well?"

As they both begin to contemplate what to do, Jin comes dancing up in his usual manner. "Hey, Kagome-chan what's the hold up we're gonna' be late to class." Kagome turns around, "sorry Jin we just have a little bit of a situation here." "Well what kind of situation, I might be able to help." Kagome stops and thinks for a minute, before finally deciding, "why not, well probably need some help to get this done fast, okay here's the situation, our cat Buyo has probably wandered into the well house, and we need to get him out." Jin simply scoffs, and a confident smirk crawls across his face, "is that all? Then you came to the right person, I love cats and cats love me, this shouldn't take 50 seconds if we all look together." Sota gulps nervously, "why do I have to go?" Kagome turns to her little brother and with an annoyed look on her face and responds. "because you were the one looking for him in the first place." Suddenly a gentle scratching sound comes from inside the building, Sota begins to shake a little, "there's something down there!" Kagome turns to her "chicken" of a brother "yeah: the cat duh." Jin frowns a little bit at the brief moment of brother/sister rivalry, "come on Kagome it wont take us more than a whole minute if we look together."

As the pair begin to walk down the stairs towards the well, Kagome begins to notice something strange, she then thinks to herself "that sound it's coming from inside the well." Then something brushes against her leg and she lets lose a panicked scream "Kyaa!" Jin leaps up from looking under the staircase while Sota falls on his seat from shock. "what, what happened, what?" asks the older boy franticly. Of course the source of the fuss is the reason they came in here in the first place. "there you are you naughty kitty, you're gonna' make us late for school today aren't ya, aren't ya." Says Jin as he picks up the pudgy pussy cat, his one man dialog with the cat quickly regressing into baby talk. Sota then points an accusing finger at his older sister, "you did that on purpose, your just making of me because _I'm_ scared and then your all, ahgh!" Kagome then gives her brother the stink eye while retorting, "look who's talking Mr. "why do I hafta' go?""

Suddenly an eerie purple glow begins to permeate the cover on the well, the glow gets brighter, and brighter until Sota can notice it, "Sis behind you!" he shouts. There is a loud crash rings throughout the tiny building as the cover on the well explodes off, sending large splinters of wood everywhere. The strange light begins to solidify and then grabs Kagome, Jin whips around tossing Buyo towards the stunned Sota, "Kagome grab my hand." Calls Jin reaching out, Jin takes his friends hand as the strange rapidly solidifying energy drags the hapless girl down the well, "I got ya' K-chan, I got ya'!" Jin's efforts, while brave prove futile as he too begins to tumble down the well, a thought then occurs to the courageous young man "choktomata, I may have Kagome but whose got me?" as the two friends tumble down the well, the energy reveals itself to be a monstrous woman, with six arms and a long tail made of bone replacing her lower half. The creature then speaks, "I live again, my strength is returning." Jin's eyes widen in shock and fear as the long bone tail re-grows flesh changing into the lower body of a centipede. The demon woman looks at Kagome's frightened face and realizes something, "You have it don't you? Give it to me." Licking the terrified girls face with a tongue that would make Gene Simmons jealous.

Kagome then thrusts her palm forward in an attempt to throw the monster off of her. "What are you doing let go of me?" "Yeah let go of her you freak!" But Kagome's thrust does more damage then Jin's struggling, as her forward palm unleashes a small wave of pink energy removing one of the centipede lady's arms at the shoulder, but even this does not deter the demon. "Foolish girl I must have the sacred jewel." It was then Jin did something that actually helped, or to be more precise his tuning fork did, the strange energy of this "between zone" causes a strange reaction with Jin's family heirloom, causing it to release powerful sound waves, and when the demon hears the high pitched noise, the reaction is almost instant, using her remaining uppermost arm she trys to block out the sound, but lacking another arm high enough to cover her ears she finds herself writhing in agony. "This noise, stop it, stop it now!" Jin seeing her reaction grabs his lucky charm and holds it closer to the bug woman, "back, back you monster." It is only now that the demon lets the two teenagers go, finally dropping them both to the bottom of the well, next to her disembodied arm. After a few moments Kagome is the first to fully recover her wits. "I guess we fell into the well." Jin then shakes his head to fully disperse the rapidly developing cobwebs in his brain. "Then what was that whole thing with the hands down winner of the ugliest woman in the universe contest." Kagome then closes her eyes in concentration. "Maybe we hit our heads or something." Jin casts a quick glance towards the demon woman's arm that lays lifeless nearby. "And then we both have the same dream that seems unlikely."

"Well whatever happened it's over now." Kagome then turns up to the top of the well and yells upwards. "Hey, Sota go get grandpa." Kagome's request for help is met only with silence. "He probably took off, the little twerp." "Well we'll worry about him later, come on we can use these vines to climb out." The two slowly traverse their way up to the opening emerging not in the shrine as they expected, but in the middle of a forest. Kagome looks around nervously trying to find any sign of her home. "What the-? Jin I could be wrong, but I don't think we're in Tokyo any more." The two recover from the stunning sight, just enough to try and find their way back to the shrine. "Sota, grandpa, Mom, where are you?" "Sota, Higurashi-sama, oyaji, anybody!" after looking around for several minuets both teenagers begin to get even more worried. "Okay this is weird, its almost like your family shrine hasn't even been." Jin is unable to finish his though as Kagome finally sees a familiar landmark. "Oh! Jin look, it's the tree." and sure enough standing as tall and majestic as ever was the sacred tree that was the center of the Higurashi family shrine. "This means were practically back to my home." But Kagome's feelings of relief and elation are cut short as she comes across a bizarre sight. There on the tree surrounded by thick vines is the same silver haired man who caused so much trouble, only a little while ago. At this time Jin can only comment, "now there's something you don't see every day." The bespectacled boy's musings are cut short as Kagome gets closer and closer to the strange looking boy. "What the, Kagome get back here!"

As the raven haired girl gets closer to the silver haired youth she realizes something very unusual about his anatomy. "Wow! Jin, this guys got ears on the top of his head, almost like dog ears." She then muses to herself, "I feel like I want to touch them." Suddenly from behind the unusual trio an angry voice yells towards them, "Hey get away from there!" Kagome squeaks in surprise as several arrows wiz past her, embedding themselves in the tree. The two active youths turn around finding themselves surrounded by a group of angry looking men with bows and arrows. One man apparently their leader steps forward and speaks in a commanding tone, "strangers surrender yourselves now." Jin then thinks to himself. "That is definitely not just a suggestion, but I cant let them hurt Kagome." He then turns towards his slightly younger friend. "Kagome stay where you are I'll deal with these guys." The leader speaks again, "I won't say it a third time, surrender now or we will need to use force." Jin's face creeps upwards into a confidant smirk as he places his headphones over his ears. "If you guys want to mess with me I should warn you all right off the bat, I'm pretty strong."

(A.N. : play double action gun form) The brown haired boy then leaps into action, using his hip hop moves to kick, punch, and throw any one who gets to close to him, all the while having a wild grin on his face. "This is awesome I've been wanting to cut loose for a while now." Everything seems to be going well, until one of the men manage to sneak pass Jin's defences and grabs Kagome. "Jin help me!" Jin whips around to see that his friend is in trouble, "hold on Kagome I'll-" Jin's personal call to arms is cut short when another man sneaks up behind him during his period of distraction and knocks the would be defender unconscious with a sharp blow to the back of the head. Jin's last coherent thought after is a simple phrase. "Aw geeze, the back of my head." But all that comes out of his lips is a nonsensical mumble sounding along the lines of, "Gigagoble." (A.N: stop playing double action gun form)

When Jin finally regains consciousness he finds his arms and legs bound tightly his backpack and all his other gear missing, including his glasses, which strangely enough haven't fallen off once during this entire episode. The first thing he hears both relives and pains him, as Kagome shouts at the collected villagers, "you didn't have to tie us up you know! My friend was only trying to protect me. " her tirade however is left unheard as the various villagers mutter speak amongst themselves. "such strange clothes they wear." "Do you think its war?" "Of course it is and during the harvest season of all times." "Do you think they are demons in disguise?" "If the girl isn't the boy surely is he fights like a demon." The rest of these various conversations are promptly ignored by Kagome as she suddenly hears a very familiar voice near by. "Oh, my head, did some one get the license number of that wrecking ball." Kagome then looks down at her friend, "Jin are you okay." Jin then looks up at his raven haired companion, "yeah, yeah I'm fine just point out the guy who sucker punched me so I can return the favor." Kagome just sweatdropps at Jin's attempts of machismo, "Um, Jin haven't you noticed something weird about these people." Jin carefully glances around squinting hard at them, "not really for you see I'm kind of missing something right now." Upon realizing that her friend is no longer wearing his glasses she then corrects her mistake. "Oops, sorry, well all of the men here are wearing topknots it's almost like Japan during medieval times." There conversation is stopped when a man shouts out to the crowd. "Make way for the High Priestess Lady Kaede." Both teens turn to see, more in Kagome's case than Jin's an elderly woman wearing red and white priestess robs holding a bow in her right hand, with an eye patch over her right eye. Both teens wonder the same thing "Now what?" The old woman then digs into a pouch at her side ad withdraws a handful of white powder. She then throws it at the two teenagers. "Demons be gone!" "Hey!" yells both youths. Jin then accidentally swallows some of the white powder revealing it to be purifying salts. "I like salt as much as the next guy but this is ridiculous." He thinks to himself. Kagome then yells at the elderly priestess, "hey, were not demons okay." "Ye, be not?" asks the older woman with a look of confusion on her face. "Then why were ye both found in the forest of Inuyasha?" one of the villagers then tries to take a guess at the origin of the two companions. "May haps they are spies from another village." Lady Kaede turns to this man and speaks to him. "If this be true then they both be fools of the highest caliber. Why would they spy on a village as poor as ours." It is then that the holy woman gets a good look at Kagome's face, the priestess then gains a look of surprise on her face. Kaede then kneels down to the level of the two friends and then roughly cups Kagome's face in her withered hands. "Let me have a look at ye, yes it is there but how?" Jin only has one thought going through his mind at this moment. "Okay, just what is going on here?"

Later as the moon rises both teens sit in the hut of Lady Kaede, after the subject of who's friend and who's foe has been fully resolved, the elderly priestess then hands the two youths each a bowl of simple stew. "Wow, this looks great" comments Kagome, "real food at last," says Jin. "Bear us no ill will children," says Kaede "for tho' I see that neither of you mean us any harm, in these troubled times of war **no** stranger may be welcomed amongst us without deep distrust." Kagome then turns to Jin an then states the obvious. "So I guess we really aren't in Tokyo huh?" "I guess not." The old priestess looks at the two strangely clad youths with a confused look on her face. "To-Ki-Yo? Never heard of it is that where your people are from?" Jin then decides to clear any future confusion. "It's where Kagome's people are from Miko-san I am from else where in the world, I was just on a special training trip." Kagome just has a confused look on her face, brought on by Jin's unique explanation, "Uh, right what he said, so we should get going." But she finishes her thought in her mind with, "although I have no idea how were going to get back though." Kaede then flashes back to the day many years ago when the priestess Kikyo died and asked that the sacred jewel be cremated with her body. "It has been fifty years since that tragic day."

Meanwhile outside something stirs in the grass around the village, something big, something evil, and something familiar. There is a loud crash as the evil entity begins to tear the village apart. Kaede and the two youths rush out of the hut in response to the panicked cries of the villagers. "What's going on?" yells Jin over the din of the noise. Then they see it, "kami-sama" mumbles Kagome in fright, "you again!" yells Jin in anger at the giant centipede woman. The demon woman lowers her head until it is level with the three spectators, and hisses at them. "Give me the sacred jewel!" She rushes past them knocking them all off of their feet. Lady Kaede turns to Kagome a look of pure shock plastered on her face. "The sacred jewel? Ye still bear it?" Kagome just looks over at the old woman, "I have no idea, I mean I've heard of the jewel but I don't," "Kagome look out!" yells Jin as the monster woman turns around to try another pass. It was then the girl had a revelation, "that thing, it's after me." One of the villagers then turns to the priestess, "Lady Kaede our spears and arrows have no effect on it." The old woman contemplates the situation for a moment. "Then we must lead it to the dry well." And now it is Jin's turn to have a revelation. "The dry well, the well we climbed out of." Kagome then turns to lady Kaede, and asks her an important question, "which way to the forest?" Before Kaede can reply Kagome takes off in a seemingly random direction. "Where the light is coming from right?" "Kagome wait up!" Calls Jin as he rushes after his friend, pausing only a moment to grab a large scythe from an unconscious farmer commenting, "I need this a lot more than you do right now." As Kagome runs from Madame centipede her mind runs a mile a minute, "someone will save me right? They've got to." "Mom, Grandpa, anybody please. Somebody help me!"

Meanwhile deep in the woods the sleeping young man in the red robe, begins to twitch and stir. His eyes open, a malevolent sneer on his face "I smell it at last, the blood of the woman that killed me, and its getting closer." Kagome continues to run into the forest with the centipede demon hot on her heels. "The Jewel give it to me." "I've already told you I don't have it." The centipede demon lashes out at Kagome, missing the girl by a hair but causing the ground underneath her to explode violently throwing her into the air, and with a hard thud she lands in-front of the great tree. She then hears a masculine voice not the gentle and caring voice of Jin but this one is rough and almost malignant. "Hello Kikyo, playin' with bugs now are we?" Kagome looks up in surprise at the red clad, silver haired youth who stares back at her. Kagome thinks to her self. "Did he just talk?" And then finally says, "So, you _are_ alive." The boy scoffs at Kagome, "why are you taking so long to kill it. Just finish it off like you finished me." Inuyasha pauses his tirade briefly to take note of "Kikyo's" outfit. "You look pretty dumb there Kikyo. The Kikyo _I_ know wouldn't waste time." By Kagome is irritated to no end, "**That** does it. Kykio, Kykio, Kykio, whoever she is, she's not me because my name is -" once again an emotional tirade gets cut short as Inuyasha the comments, "she's heeree." Kagome whips around to see Madame Centipede mere inches away from her. But she is then saved as several of the villagers have launched arrows with ropes into the bug demons sides using them to yank the monster away from Kagome. Kagome lets out a relieved sigh "So I **was** saved." Inuyasha then scoffs at Kagome a second time. "You've gotten pathetic Kikyo." That is when Kagome has had enough, the whips back towards Inuyasha and begins yet another emotional tirade. "Look I'm telling you I AM NOT KYKYO! Whoever _she_ is." Inuyasha scoffs yet again, "and I'm telling you have to be her. 'cause if you weren't you wouldn't smell so-" Inuyasha pauses to take a whiff of Kagome's scent and then realizes, "you're _not_ her." "That's what I've been trying to tell you, _my_ name is Kagome, Kah-Goh-Meh." Inuyasha simply looks away scoffing for the nth time today, "you're right Kikyo was cuter, much cuter." "what did you say?" Kagome's verbal assault on the dog boy is halted in its tracks as the centipede woman grabs Kagome yet again. In a panic Kagome grabs the closest anchor possible, Inyuasha's long hair. "Ow, ow, ow let go will you."

As Inuyasha gets closer and closer to suffering premature balding, someone very familiar has finally managed to catch up with everyone. With a cry of, "LET HER GO!" Jin leaps high into the air his "borrowed" scythe flashing in the moon light. Jin brings his scythe down to try and sever one of the demons arms, but is knocked aside as easily as a fly. Jin flies back and finally stops his unexpected flight time when he crashes violently into a nearby tree with a sickening crunch, and a pained moan of "not exactly my proudest moment, is it." Seeing her friend hurt in such an extreme manner Kagome lashes out at the demon women. "LEAVE HIM ALONE." And with another display of the amazing power she showed while falling down the well she causes several more of the demon woman's arms off. She stares wide eyed at her accomplishment and then thinks to herself, "I did that before, in the well. But how did I do it?" Suddenly a bright purple light begins to shine from within Kagome's left side. "Now what's happening." Madam centipede charges again burying her sharp teeth into Kagome's side, tossing her into the air. Following a violent spurt of blood, a familiar purple jewel also starts flying through the air. One thought comes to Kagome's mind at this time "it came from inside me. Is that the sacred jewel?" Kagome then tumbles to the ground with a loud thud, followed shortly afterwards by the sacred jewel with a light tink. Inuyasha then starts yelling at Kagome. "Hey you, give the sacred jewel." Kagome is unable to process this request before the centipede demon attacks again, this time opting to wrap her impossibly longer lower half around the two trying to crush the poor girl. The Chilopoda (A.N: scientific name for centipedes) laughs maniacally at the pain and misery of the two, leaning in close to gloat about her victory. "I'd heard that there was a half-demon spawn that yearned for the sacred jewel. It must be you isn't it?" Both Kagome and the barely conscious Jin are confused by this statement and both ask themselves the same question. "Half-demon? Just what is this guy?"

Inuyasha's mouth splits into a confident smirk, "tche, half is all I need to beat your scaly hide. Anything more than that and it would be a waste of my time just looking at you." Kagome then looks up at Inuyasha and then asks him an important question. "Hey listen, you can talk big but can you back it up." Inuyasha simply scoffs yet again, "better than your human friend could." Jin somehow manages to hear this from fifty yards away and decides to respond. "Hey dog boy, at I did more in past fifty minutes than you have all day. So how bout you think twice before you decide to insult somebody." Madam centipede turns towards Jin and yells at the boy "SILENCE, human filth. Before I finish the job that the tree behind you so kindly started." Jin simply scowls at the demon woman, his eyes ablaze with insubordination and courage. Madame centipede turns back towards the pinned couple and continues gloating, "and as for you two what can either of you do when your pinned to that tree." Madam centipede bends down and using her freakishly long tongue to scoop up and swallow the jewel while saying, "you are all powerless to stop me." The collected villagers then begin to panic, "it swallowed the jewel!" "Lady Kaede what are we going to do now." All those gathered there watch in fear and in some cases fascination as the arms that were removed reattach themselves to Madame Centipede's sockets. "It's rearming itself." Says Kagome, forcing Jin to use all of his willpower to prevent himself from face-faulting from the horrible yet unintentional pun, thereby prompting further injury. Madam Centipede convulses for a few seconds before the human like skin covering its upper torso explodes off of her like a second skin reveling a more hideous visage beneath it. "ugh, and I thought she was ugly before," comments Jin. If Madam centipede heard this comment she either chose to ignore it or to deal with the impudent human later, she simply reveled in the new found power that accompanied her transformation. "At last" she shrieked "my power is complete." Her grip on Kagome and Inuyasha begins to tighten, forcing the girl to groan in pain as she feels her bones begin to give and her lungs start to collapse under the pressure. "It's crushing me!" Inuyasha then looks down at Kagome and then asks her a simple question, "hey, can you pull out this arrow?" Kagome looks up and the "half-demon" with a confused look on her face. Inuyasha then asks again, "I said can you pull this arrow out or not?" Then lady Kaede yells towards the pinned pair, "NAY, child do not remove the arrow. If it is pulled from his body Inuyasha will be free to destroy us all." Jin then snaps awake from his stupor at this comment, "destroy us all, that doesn't sound like a very good thing to me Kagome-chan." Inuyasha then yells at everyone, "at least with me you all have a chance whereas **that**," gesturing towards the mutated Madam centipede, "thing's gonna' _eat_ you." He then turns to Kagome, "and what about you, are you ready to die yet?" Kagome struggles internally for a moment, "I don't know what I should do." She thinks to herself, "but given the choice," and at the top of her lungs she proclaims her decision to everyone present. "I chose to live."

With a bright flash of pink light the arrow binding Inuyasha to the tree disappears, everyone around has the eyes wide in shock and aw. "It's gone, my sisters has vanished." Jin knowing Kagome the longest is the most surprised. "What just happened here?" Inuyahsa's body pulses with power and he begins to snicker sinisterly. And with an amazing burst of power Inuyasha breaks free of Madam Centipede's bonds. Allowing Kagome to fall free and hit the ground with a thud, amongst the shredded pieces of Madam Centipede's lower body. Jin then rushes, (read: hobbles), over to her side. "Kagome are you alright?" But instead of immediately answering her friends question she stares in awe at the raw power that the two demon combatants are showing, (A.N: play Real Action) Madam Centipede shrieks in pain and anger, "wicked child!" Inuyasha turns towards the insect woman his claws extending to their maximum length, "nasty hag!" Madam Centipede growls viciously and charges the Hanyo boy, but with a cry of "IRON REAPPER SOUL STEALER!" Inuyasha shreds Madam Centipede's torso spilling insectoid gore all around him. (A.N: stop playing Real Aciton)Jin then turns to his stunned companion and says to her, "well one thing we know for certain now, he _is_ strong." Kagome just nods dumbly at her friend's observation. But she is then shocked out of her stupor when the shredded pieces of madam centipede begin to quiver and shake, Jin shoots up in surprise "Ho, my god!" he screams. Kagome then begins to panic and she also shoots up into a sanding position clinging to her friend in fear, "it's still moving." Kaede moves forward and begins to speak to the young girl. "Find the glowing flesh quickly young one. That is where the jewel will be, it must be removed at once lest the flesh of Madam Centipede revives itself." Kagome looks at the old priestess incredulously, "tell me your joking." Jin then comments with surprise clear in this voice, "We might have to go through all of that again?" Kagome begins to rapidly look around the various chunks of flesh, until she sees one that glows with the unusual purple light. "There that one, right there." The elderly priestess keels down next to the body and removes the glowing stone, causing the various pieces of the demon to rot away leaving only the bones. "Talk about a crash diet." Jokes Jin, causing Kagome to look over at her friend with an "are you serious?" look in her eye.

The priestess the gingerly places the jewel in Kagome's hand. Kagome looks at the tiny yet powerful sphere in her hand, "what's this for?" "Only ye may posses the sacred jewel." States the wizened priestess, "ye, who resembles the dead Kikyo." She adds to herself mentally. "But how did it get inside my body?" Asks Kagome, "yeah" adds Jin, "what would you be doing with a jewel wanted by demons?" Inuyasha the reminds everyone of his presence by crushing some of Madam Centipede's bones beneath his feet. "Exactly, humans can't use it so why bother keeping it?" The hanyo cracks his knuckles allowing his claws to extend themselves again. "So, if you hand over the jewel right now, I won't have to start sharpening my claws on you." Both Jin's and Kagome's eyes widen in shock. "Aw great, now we got to deal with the guy who killed our first problem." Jin's comment is audible to all but Kagome's shock prevents stuns her into silence so what she thinks is only heard by her own mental ears. "You mean to tell me he's not the hero?"

Next time: The seekers of the Sacred Jewel, and its guardians.


	3. the seekers of the sacred jewel

Inuyasha and the power of pure sound

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

Chapter 2

The Seekers of the Sacred Jewel, and its Guardians.

Everyone stood staring in shock at the sudden turn of events, the half demon Inuyasha who had, mere minutes ago saved everyone from the wrath of the vicious demon Madam Centipede, had now threatened to kill everyone to claim the sacred jewel. The demon boy flexes his fingers allowing his claws to extend in an intimidating fashion with a malignant smirk on his face. The priestess Kaede and Jin place themselves between the Hanyo and the now shivering Kagome. Kaede is the first to address the situation, "pay no heed to Inuyasha child." "Yeah don't worry Kagome we'll protect you, you just hold on tight to that sacred jewel." Says Jin, Kagome simply stares at the tiny source of all the trouble thinking to herself, "the sacred jewel makes monsters more powerful, does that mean its cursed?" It's then the very little patience Inuyasha has decides to vanish like the last piece of pizza at a weight watchers convention. "I hate havin' to wait, and I hate how you smell!" Yells Inuyasha, as he rushes forward murder apparent in his eyes. In a panic Kagome turns and tries to run away, but only after moving a few yards away from the elderly priestess and her best male friend she trips over one of the many demon bones strewn about the battlefield.

But either divine will or pure dumb luck tripping over the bones was probably the best move she could make, as Inuyasha's potentially fatal attack soars harmlessly over her not even cutting her long delicate hair. Kagome lands facedown on the ground with a thud, while Inuyasha skids along the earth kicking up a cloud of dust. Inuyasha curls his fingers again with the same malicious smirk on his face, "want me to scratch you back instead _little_ girl." Kagome simply stares at the demon boy before yelling at him, "you really tried to hit me didn't you." It is at this moment that the various villagers finally come out of their stupor and leap into action, "everyone, the arrows shoot him." Inuyasha simply scoffs at the villager's attempts to keep him back. With a simple swing of his claws the arrows are knocked aside a cleaved into toothpicks. Then the various trees behind the villagers get cut down causing the people to scatter in a panic. That's when Jin decides that enough is enough. He rushes forward in an attempt to catch Inuyasha off guard despite Lady Kaede's warnings, "no boy stay back, Inuyasha be to strong for thee." But if he hear the old woman's warning he certainly did a good job acting otherwise. Jin then cocks his right fist back to let loose the hardest haymaker he can muster. But once again his efforts although courageous are again proven worthless. As Inuyasha whips around grabs the boys fist and tosses him aside as though he was an elementary student, Inuyasha simply then points at himself as says in his standard cocky tone. "Who do you people think I am? Do you honestly think that you can hurt me like I hurt that centipede?"

The villagers turn towards their priestess in hopes of a solution to deal with the irate hanyo, thankfully Lady Kaede did indeed have a plan. "Well, well, well, you always were a fool Inuyasha, somehow I knew it would come to this." The wizened priestess reaches into the folds of her robe and produces a strange necklace made of black beads and white teeth. Mean while Kagome has used the various distractions to try and gain some distance between her and the violent dog boy. But with his incredible agility Inuyasha had quickly closed the distance between the two. "Prepare yourself!" he screams. "Prepare myself, for what?" Wonders Kagome, turning around in time to see Inuyasha swing his claws at her, she takes another tumble just missing being shredded again and dropping the sacred jewel. She looks behind her in shock seeing that the missing claw swipe has caused a deep 15 foot long gash in the earth. Inuyasha seeing that she dropped the sacred jewel then makes his move diving for the empowering gem, "it's mine at last!" He exclaims, but thankfully fate had other plans for this day, as the spell that Kaede began to cast with the necklace begins to take hold. The various beads fly apart and reassemble themselves around Inuyasha's neck. The sudden addition to his wardrobe surprises the hanyo enough to stop him in mid-dive, "what the heck is this thing?" Lady Kaede then calls out to Kagome, "quickly child: the word of subjugation!" Kagome then struggles back to her feet while retrieving the sacred jewel. "Word what word?" She asks, "it matters not!" Yells Kaede, "your word and your word alone has the power to subdue his spirit." Kagome continues trying to run from the demon boy taking an accidental tumble down a fairly steep cliff, landing at the bottom with a deep thud again forcing her to drop the sacred jewel.

The tiny yet powerful crystal rolls away from the girl towards a simple rope bridge. Inuyasha jumps at the chance to gain full demon powers a leaps towards the marble sized power amplifier. "Heh, how can you overpower me when you can't even sit up?" Kagome then begins to think furiously, "a "word to hold his spirit" but how will I know which one is the right one?" Inuyasha draws closer and closer to the sacred jewel, Kagome racking her brain for the answer, the intensity of her though process so great one could potentially hear the cogs grinding. The demon boys hand is mere inches away from achieving a new level of power, when Kagome then regains her notice of his fuzzy dog ears, that is when the idea hits her like a bolt of lighting. So at the top of her lungs Kagome yells loud and clear for everyone to hear, "SIT BOY!" The necklace around the Dog boys neck suddenly flashes with a bright pink light, and as if gravity around him has been increased a thousand fold, plows face into the bridge beneath his feet. "Well whaddya' know," Kagome says completely surprised by this sudden turn of events, "it actually worked." Inuyasha then manages to pry his face off of the ground clutching angrily at the necklace, "what the heck is this thing?" He yells, following this question by frantically trying to remove the mystic piece of jewelry, but to no avail. Kaede passively looks at the scene, "I am sorry Inuyasha but even you lack the power to remove the charm." The half-dog boy looks angrily up at the elderly priestess screaming at her, most likely from the indignity of it all. "Well see about that old hag. I'd come up there and finish you off myself. That is if you didn't look half dead already!" Jin being aided to the sight of this chaos simply shakes his head at the half demons ignorance. "Whoo boy, the mongrels gonna get it now." Kaede simply nods towards Kagome and politely says the raven haired girl, "the word if you please." Kagome nods, turns towards Inuyasha with a confident, "Sit Boy!" Inuyasha finds himself not only hitting the bridge but falling though it as well and then tumbling into the river below. Kagome just stares at the splash zone where Inuyasha landed, shrugs and says "wow, that was easy, I only wish I said it sooner." "Your telling me," groans an injured Jin.

The following morning the various men of the village are now hard at work repairing the damage caused by Madam Centipede last night. While in lady Kaede's the two strangers from the well are having their wounds treated. At this exact moment Kagome is having the nasty gash in her side that Madam Centipede created in her attempt to claim the sacred jewel. With a pained groan Kaede applies a bandage to the injury. "The pain is great yes," comments the older woman, "but this is only the beginning." Over to the side recovering from his various injuries lies Jin in what appears to be a deep sleep, but in actuality he is quietly listening to the conversation between the two women. "Now that the sacred "shikon no tama" is back amongst us **far** worse creatures than Madam centipede will try to claim it." "Worse than what happened yesterday?" Asks Kagome incredulously, in his corner Jin's eyes widen behind his lids, as he thinks to himself, "if it's worse than yesterday than Kagome is going to need me beside her through it all, although I'm apparently useless against demons." While the bespectacled boy continues his silent monologue the two women continue their audible dialog. "And not just demons: that are many **humans** whose harts are even darker than those of the fiendish creatures, and only the jewel has the power to make their petty ambitions a reality." Kagome is awe struck by the reality of what she has suddenly gotten not only herself but one of her best friends into so she simple summarizes her feelings with a simple, "Whoa." She then casts her gaze to her left and says, "speaking of petty, what are _you_ still doing here?" This question is aimed surprisingly at, the reason Jin is only feigning sleep instead of letting Morphious claim another victory, Inuyasha, laying on his side, his face in the palm of his hand, with a look of distaste plastered on his face.

Lady Kaede being the most courteous amongst those that are not from the future, then provides the answer to Kagome's simple question. "With the beads around his neck the threat that he posses has significantly diminished. This is most likely the only way we can allow him to be so close to the sacred jewel." Jin being incapable of actually getting any sleep with the hanyo so close to his best friend decides to officially get involved with the conversation. "This kinda' brings us to my question. Why in the hell to you want the jewel dog boy? You seem pretty powerful as is, I mean with the way you sliced up the centipede woman yesterday." Kagome then begins to fuss over her dear friend. "Oh, Jin you should be resting, you took a worse beating than I did yesterday." Jin simply smiles one of his trademark gentle smiles, with the corners of his mouth turned up, his eyes closed, "don't worry about me K-chan I'm a lot tougher than I look, and once you think about it I kinda' half to be." Kaede being the polite person that she is try's to answer the young mans question. "Ah, but ye forget Inuyasha is just a half-demon." In a brief fit of rage, or childish annoyance, Inuyasha drives his fist into the floor with a loud resounding crack. He then wheels around at the three conservationists, "you know what? I am sick and tired of hearing some dried up witch I barely know talk like she knows me!" Kaede simply shakes her head, if either in disappointment or disapproval of the demon boy's immaturity and decides to straighten out the confusion. "So ye do not remember, I thought as much. I am the younger sister to Kikyo, she who bound you to the tree: Kaede." The confusion on Inuyasha's face is clear as her wracks his brain for a face to tie to the name, "you're Kaede." His mind manages to conjure up an image of a little girl wearing an orange kimono holding a quiver of arrows. "So you were that brat huh?" Kaede simply nods her head, "fifty years has past since that day and I have grown old." Inuyasha processes this information and simply closes his eyes a cocky smirk crossing his face. "And if your this old, Kikyo must be pushing a hundred. I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about getting' old. Not for a while at least" the last sentence muttered under her breath. Lady Kaede closes her functional eye and bows her head in reverence. "Kikyo did not have to worry either, she died that day."

This statement shocked Inuyasha, even though it wasn't clearly noticeable by everybody, Jin couldn't help but catch a very subtle twitch of his canine ears. Kaede goes on to finish her woeful tale, "it was on the same day she shot ye with the enchanted arrow." Inuyasha's smirk simply deepens, "gee sorry to hear that. Not that I care or anything." Even though Inyasha's tone supports this claim, Jin cant help but feel like something about the air has changed, "it's not the smell, it's not the temperature," he thinks to himself, "what is it?" He pauses to think about it, then it hits him like a ton of bricks, "it's the background noise, its changed slightly, I can't help but think he's lying." While Jin continues to think to himself the rest of the world continues one without a hitch. With Inuyasha returning to laying on his side, "this just means there's one less thing to worry about." As Kaede stokes the fire in the stove the begins to reprimand Inuyasha's lackadaisical attitude. "I would not let my guard down just yet Inuyasha. I know now that Kagome is the reincarnation of my sister." The two teens from the future are both immensely surprised by this statement, Kagome only lets off a quiet "Huh?" While Jin sums up the emotion of the younger, looking, group in the room with a loud and clearly confused, "NANI?" Kaede continues to explain the situation to the gathered crowd. "And it is not merely cause ye resemble her. The jewel of four souls was in your body, that alone is close enough. It is up to ye now to take up its protection." Jin is the first of the two youths to fully recover their voice and immediately begins to sum up his thoughts. "Woah, woah, back up lady are you saying my best friend is now some kind of superhero just cause a fancy rock ended up in her body. Let me tell you something lady I don't care who you think Kagome is, but this doesn't mean she has to protect this jewel." Kaede simply stares at the boy and lowers her head. "I am sorry young man but whether either of you like it or not it is Kagome's duty to protect the jewel, it is her destiny." "Destiny?" rebuttals Jin, "my philosophy is, that while fate can't be changed it is humanities right as sentient beings to change their destinies."

While the priestess of the past and the boy of future, continue to argue about the situation, Kagome has taken this opportunity to take a walk through the village, in an attempt to clear her head. She looks at the small jewel now hanging around her neck, "me protect this, yeah right who am I kidding?" As Kagome leisurely strolls along, she fails to notice the various villagers staring at her muttering amongst them selves, "She's the reincarnation of whom?" "You must admit, there is something otherworldly about her." "Well what a bout the boy who came with her?" "I wonder where he is?" "He is a strange one indeed." Kagome simply glances to the side and out of the corner of her eye finally notices the large crowd of people bowing their heads in reverence of the reincarnated priestess. Blushing crimson in embarrassment from all the unwanted and, in her mind, undeserved attention only one thought goes through her pretty head at this moment, "I've gotta' get out of here." Meanwhile a minor distance away Inuyasha sits in one of the upper branches of a tree contemplating what happened while he was "asleep." "She died, and I never knew." Suddenly an orange object comes flying though the air directly at the half-demon boy, but Inuyasha being, well Inuyasha, he deftly catches it out of thin air, revealing the object being a simple pear, he stares at the piece of fruit for a moment, confused at the N.I.F.P (now identified flying produce) and looks down to see Kagome standing there with a large assortment of fruits and vegetables. She then calls up to the hanyo boy, "hey doncha' want to eat it?" Inuyasha stares at the assorted produce for a few seconds before finally asking, "where'd you get all that?" "The villagers gave it to me. Wanna' come down here and help me eat it?" Inuyasha simply scoffs at the girl, "why don't you ask your boyfriend to help you?" Kagome just sighs, "first of all Jin is not my boyfriend he's just my friend, and secondly you're the one I need to talk to at the moment."

The two sit under a tree silently munching on the various snacks the villagers offered Kagome as "tribute". After a few minutes Kagome then turns to Inuyasha and decides to get the ball rolling. "Look it's fair to say you don't like me right?" Inuyasha simply scowls at the girl, "waaaay more than fair girly." Kagome frowns at the dog boys negative attitude, "whatever it's not even _me_ you dislike, its this Kikyo person." At the mention of the late priestess' name Inuyasha leaps back up to his branch while Kagome gives off a slightly dejected sigh. "I'm not Kikyo okay, I'm Kagome. Can't we just call a truce or something?" The dog boy points an accusing finger at the girl of the future, "hah, I knew it. What you don't seem to get is that I'm only after the jewel! Your just trying to lure me into a false sense of security." Kagome just turns back to her snack and makes an offside comment, "oh _really_? That's funny considering all I have to do to make you obey is say the word "sit"." Then with a flash, and a crash, Inuyasha finds himself involuntarily face planting into, and eating, ground beneath him. Kagome just smiles and embarrassed smile, and turns to the dog boy and simply says, "whoops, sorry about that." With an "aw, man!" Inuyasha pries himself up from the ground coughing up top soil and grass.

Later that night, we find the two friends of the future sleeping in Kaede's hut. But the earlier roles from their last visit have been reversed. This time it is Jin who is catching up on his Z's his headphones over his ears playing gentle rock music to block out the light crackling of the fire in the fire pit in the middle of the room. While Kagome lays awake thinking about home and hearth, "it's been two days since we've come over here. Grandpa, Mom, Sota, they must be worried about us, we've got to get back one way or another." And with that she finally closes her eyes and gently drifts off to sleep, surprisingly aided by the muffled music coming from Jin's headphones. Meanwhile outside the hut, something wicked this way comes, for sitting in the trees is an enormous number of crows, one of them a very frightening creature, with three blood red eyes, surrounded by a frightening blue aura, and is at least twice the size of any of the "normal" crows gathered around the village. But thankfully two things drive them away, one being Jin's tuning fork necklace who sends out it's bizarre sound waves, as if it were reacting to the evil presence nearby, the other being Inuyasha himself, patrolling the area keeping the creatures that slip pass Kaede's defenses at bay. The dog boy watches the retreating forms of the birds and scoffs at their cowardice. "They've all come just 'cause they sense the jewel, Hnh. Stinkin' vultures." The following morning we find the two friends of the modern era going out for what seems like a morning stroll. Jin then turns to his raven haired friend, "so where are we going again?" Kagome turns to her American friend and replies in an almost robotic manner. "Back into Inuyasha's forest to find the dry well, it's how we came here after all. So there has to be some clue on how we can get back home." Jin simply nods, humming thoughtfully, "that makes sense I suppose, but are you sure we should be doing this alone? Kaede did warn us that a lot of nasty stuff is after the sacred jewel, and I don't think I can protect you from any demons we might encounter out here, a few people maybe but demons definitely not." "Don't worry we're only gonna' take a quick look and if we don't find anything we can go back to village and try again later." Jin pauses to think about Kagome's reasoning for a moment. "Okay I'll buy that for now, but if anything happens I'm dragging you back, whether we find anything or not, deal?" Kagome just stares at her bizarre friend for a moment, before giggling and smiling at him while holding out her hand. "Deal."

Meanwhile back in the village the many villagers, including Kaede, search for the missing couple. "Kagome, Jin, where are you?" "Lady Kagome, master Jin?" A group of villagers rush up towards Lady Kaede, "we've looked everywhere but their not here." Lady Kaede closes her eye in thought, "could it be that they have gone off on their own? We spoke of those who seek the sacred jewel, yet not nearly enough." "But Lady Kaede, wouldn't Lord Jin keep Lady Kagome safe? He managed to keep a large number of us at bay when we first encountered them." "Yes but ye were not bandits or rouge samurai with full killing intent, nor were ye demons, and we all saw how easily Jin was swatted aside by Madam Centipede." All the while Inuyasha watched the entire scene silently contemplating what course of action he should take. Meanwhile, deep in the forest the two friends, after forcing their way through shrubs, brambles, and bushes, finally found the object of their search. Kagome points past a thin thicket of scrub oak, "there that's the well we came out of." "Well, let's get to it then." Then suddenly to their right there is a light rustling sound and seemingly out of no where a group of armored thugs leap out of the bushes and surround the two friends. "Aw, not again!" thinks Jin, he then turns to his friend and yells to her, "Kagome, run! Get hel-" unfortunately the boy is unable to act to protect his friend nor himself as he is sucker-punched from behind, the last coherent thought in his mind before passing out is, "aw, geeze the back of my head again." But the only thing to come out of his mouth is a bizarre mess of gibberish, sounding like "heyvenagle." "Jin!" yells Kagome, before one of the thugs gag her with his hand, and drags her off into the woods. Shortly thereafter we come to the bandits hideout, a ramshackle building, surrounded by horses carrying various weapons and other implements of thievery. Kagome is then violently pinned to the ground by the rough hands of a bandit with a violent thud. One of the other bandits turns to a shadowed figure "hey boss, we caught the goil just like ya asked." (A.N: the New York accent is added for a slight change of pace.). Another goon chuckles lewdly and tugs at Kagome's skirt, "her kimonos even shorter than _mine_. You're gonna' catch a cold runnin' around half dressed." Understandably a blush quickly covers Kagome's face, she then somehow manages to throw the guy on top of her off, while clutching her skirt, "stop that you're gonna' rip it." Then the shadowed figure moves out of the darkness revealing a pale, bald man, up to seven feet high with a dull look in his lifeless eyes. "Han' o'er the jewel now." Kagome begins to back away in fear but her retreat is halted by a pair of thugs each grabbing one of her arms. The guy at Kagome's right then speaks to the tall man, "hey boss try to take her head off in one swing, like a dandelion." Kagome's eyes widen in fear as the boss begins to draw his redonkulously long sword, she then struggles to break free, "let go of me!" The thug on her left yells at her again, "stop squirmin' you brat!" The boss swings, wide, very wide, wide enough to miss Kagome completely and cleave the guy to her left in half, the other thugs eyes widen in shock, one of them then recovers enough the say something, "hey whatchu' to that for boss." The hulking man chuckles stupidly, yet sinisterly, as he raises his sword for another swing, and brings it down into the floor with a resounding crash. "hey, hey, boss what're you doin'. She's the one you want not us!" screams one of the goons shoving Kagome forward, bringing her closer to the berserker. Kagome then backs up and turns around to the various thugs and bandits, "now wait a minute, can't you tell that there's something wrong with your boss. Now get your butts in gear or you two idiots will be next. I mean are you so stupid that you need somebody to tell you everything." The assembled people duck under a wide swing made by the bandit's "boss" Kagome leaps away in self defense. "This is just perfect, here I am in feudal Japan, playing duck-duck-goose with an eight foot oni wannabe."

Meanwhile a distance away from the action, Inuyasha swiftly dashes through the forest leaping across rivers, over rocks, and from tree to tree. He pauses for a moment to try and catch the scents of the two wayward teens. "Stupid kids, I'm not worried about them but they took the jewel with them." He then catches a familiar whiff and rushes off in its direction, finding not Kagome by the well but the unconscious form of Jin. The helf demon boy sighs irately and saunters up to the boy and begins to nudge him, "hey, hey kid wake up!" Inuyasha then takes a deep breath and yells into Jin's ear at the top of his lungs. "HEY KID WAKE UP!" Thankfully Jin does wake up, with a start, his fists flying in random directions one of these leading straight into Inuyasha's face with a surprisingly loud crack, Jin then shoots up into a sitting position, mumbling wildly. "Where, where is he, where's the rat bastard that snuck up behind me, I'll beat him with my fist, I'll, I'll." He then looks to the side and sees Inuyasha sitting there his hands of his face, "oh, It's just you dog boy." Inuyasha stands up an angry scowl on his face (A.N: when isn't there an angry scowl on the hanyo's face? LOL) "What the hell was that all about you punk." Yells Inuyasha, "if that's the thanks I get for waking you up I should have just left lying there." "Yea whatever dog breath, I don't see why Kagome tried to, oh my gosh Kagome, she's been kidnapped by bandits." "What? Why didn't you protect her?" "You try protecting someone while your unconscious, and while were on the subject why do you care?" "I don't, it's just that the stupid girl has the jewel with her." Jin just scowls at Inuyasha's selfish behavior, then simply sighs and bows his head, "look we can either argue about this all day, or we can go find Kagome and save your precious sacred jewel while were at it." Inuyasha scoffs and then finally relents, "fine let's get to it, now which way did they go." Jin simply blanches and nearly facefaults at the question. "Why you asking me? I've unconscious for only kami-sama knows how long, why don't you use that super sniffer of yours and track her down like the dog I know you are?"

While these two continue to argue the situation back with Kagome steadily gets worse. The berserker boss continues to swing his sword wildly, cutting cleanly through candle sticks, statues, a load bearing beam, causing a section of the roof to collapse, almost crushing several people beneath, including Kagome. The girl runs up to one of the bandits who were injured by the collapsing ceiling, "are you okay?" hefting the poor guy on her shoulders, everyone finally notices that the pile of debris has blocked the front door cutting off their only route of escape, "now we've gotta' go around, it's blocked". The "boss" stands there menacingly mumbling to himself, "I wan' a jewel give it to me." Kagome looks down at the spherical trouble magnet around her neck, "he's after the jewel. I really wish I didn't have it right now." The raven haired girl then flashes back to when Kaede warned her about the various villains, aside from the numerous demons, that would be after the jewel, the hapless girl then whispers to herself, "maybe I should've listen." But taking another look at the seemingly less and less human berserker in front of her she then decides, "I'll worry about that latter." The boss takes another swing, and missed again, tripping over his colossal feet and crashing into the wall with a sickening crunch. It's then that Kagome gets an idea, ""wait a minute, since he's after the jewel, we've just need to get rid of it." With a tug Kagome pulls the necklace off, and with a deft toss the chucks the crystal out of an open window. Now that the object of his desire is gone, the boss seams to become distracted, and starts to simply mill around, "the jewel give it to me". Kagome then turns to the remaining bandits and gives them an order, "the wall all of you push it out, all at once." A collective response of "hai" answers Kagome's command followed by a mass tackle from the assorted goons, one bandit then turns to Kagome and says to her, "sorry boss, its won't budge." With a flustered look on her face, Kagome then yells at him, "I'm not your boss!" it's then that Kagome gets a very bad feeling, she turns around and finds the boss looming over her with his sword raised high, ready to cut the poor girl down. Suddenly with a loud crash the wall explodes inwards as a familiar red clad form intercepts the swinging blade, and surprisingly the blade snaps clean in two after colliding with the red fabric Inuyasha usually wears. Kagome's eyes widen in relief and joy at seeing someone come to her rescue, "Inuyasha!" The demon boy then swings a powerful right hook colliding with the boss' jaw, while Jin seemingly coming from nowhere performs a helicopter spin, sweeping the behemoths feet out from underneath him. When the biggest goon of all falls flat on his back, the other bandits take this opportunity to escape through the new exit that Inuyasha so easily provided for them, "were gettin' outa' here boss!" Kagome then turns to the two boys who saved her, throwing her arms around her best friend. "I'm so glad you guys came for me." Jin blushes at his current situation, but any further contemplation is cut short as Inuyasha pries the bespectacled boy away and addresses the girl, "where is it, is it safe, where's the jewel?" Kagome then gets a confused and embarrassed look of her face, "uh, jewel." Inuyasha's face changes from one of angry determination to one of incredulous confusion. "Please tell me you didn't just say that." Kagome just stands there with a look on her face that seems to say, "This will be a funny story later on."

Once the majority of Inuyasha's adrenalin settles down, he finally notices something with his sensitive nose. He brings his sleeve over his face to try and block out the overwhelming, to him, odor. "Hey do you smell that? Kinda' like rotting flesh or maybe even," Inuyasha need not to finish his thought, as the armor on the boss was knocked loose and fell off of his chest, revealing a gruesome sight. In the middle of the bosses chest instead of a stretch of flesh, is a large hole, and sitting comfortably within it is the three eyed crow from last night. The demonic avian hisses violently at being discovered fowl saliva flying from is teeth filled beak. Jin's eyes widen in disgust, "well if that isn't the grossest thing I've ever seen it definitely makes the top five." "I knew something was wrong." Says Kagome, Inuyasha simply scoffs (A.N: that seems to be his response to almost everything) "how much you wanna' bet that that bird ripped out his living heart and made itself a bloody nest? Carrion crows don't fight on their own when there are dead bodies around, they ain't that tough." The demon boy then leaps forward claws at the ready, "but they sure are nasty." Inuyasha shoots his hand forward aiming to exterminate the nasty parasite there and then, but the foul fowl makes a quick escape out of the back of his corpse puppet, and flies out the window. "It's getting away!" yells Kagome, "aren't you going to go after it?" asks Jin. Inuyasha simply scowls at the pair from the future, "in case neither of you haven't noticed but the world if fulla monsters. Do you honestly want me to go after them all?" Jin then decides to look out the window to see where the nasty varmint took off too, and his eyes widen in shock, he then turns to the others, "uh, guys you might wanna see this." Inuyasha jumps up to the window and his eyes also widen in surprise, not at the fact that the demon bird is getting away, but at the fact that it has the sacred jewel clamped tightly in its beak. "aaugh! That stupid crow is getting away with the jewel. C'mon you two!" Inuyasha then plows through another wall, dragging poor Kagome with him, the demon boy then looks around for a solution to their current problem, and to his left sees the horses that the bandits left behind, with the many weapons strapped to their back, it's at this moment he gets an idea.

A few moments latter we see the trio running through the forest, Inuyahsa leaping through the trees carrying Kagome, who's holding a long bow and a quiver of arrows, while Jin rides beneath them on one of the abandoned horses, swinging a set of bolos in his right hand, Inuyasha looks down at the music addict and then decides to ask a question. "Are you sure you know how to use those things?" Jin looks up at the demon boy with a goofy smirk on his face and replies, "not really, but how hard can it be? I've seen it done dozens if not hundreds of times." Inuyasha then sweatdropps and would continue the argument with the dance maniac later, when the situation wasn't so dire. Inuyahsa then glances at Kagome and yells over the din of the wind that whipped by their heads. "Well, what're you waiting for, shoot the damn thing already." "Me shoot," squeaks Kagome, "you're kidding right? I've never used a bow in my life." "Look the crow lives by feeding on human flesh. If you think it's bad now, just wait until he swallows the jewel." Jin decides to cut in on the conversation, "uh, guys I hate to break up the love fest but I think he just swallowed the jewel." It's then that Kagome makes a decision, "all right I'll try." Jin then yells up at his friend. "No, Kagome, in this kind of situation there is no try, you either do, or don't. There's no room here for try." Inuyasha then throws in his two cents, "Kikyo was a master archer, so take it out with one shot." Kagome glares at her current mode of transportation, "I told you my name is Kagome." Jin then yells back up at them. "GUYS, now is not the time!" Kagome nods and preps an arrow, then she silently prays to her past life, "Kikyo, please give me your strength." Inuyasha leaps as high as he can giving Kagome the clearest shot possible, "here it goes!" She yells as she lets the arrow fly, it soars up into the sky, reaches the pinnacle of its climb, begins to fall back down to earth, not even getting close to the intended target. Inuyasha lands on the ground but due to the extra weight of the girl on his back, the landing is less than perfect, and he finds himself once again eating dirt. In spite of the danger of the situation Jin then decides to try and loosen the tension by making a joke at the dog boys expense. "Wow, you must really like how the top soil tastes, since you always seem to be going back for more." Inuyasha pries his face out of the ground and turn to his mounted comrade and through gritted teeth makes quiet yet angry, "aw, shut up." Kagome then starts yelling at Inuyasha, "what just happened? You told me Kikyo was a master archer." Inuyasha then glares at the girl sitting on his back, "_she_ was, _you_ on the other hand are a klutz." Meanwhile up in the sky the demon crow has finished powering up thanks to the sacred jewel in its gullet, growing in size until it could rival most prop-planes. "Yikes, look how big it's gotten!" comments Kagome, Inuyasha then turns to the girl and tells her to try again. Kagome pulls another arrow back, lets it fly, only to have a repeat of what happened last time. His frustration finally reaching a breaking point Inuyasha unceremoniously drops the girl onto the ground. Jin glares at the demon boy, "hey what's the big idea you big lummox." "Listen here you pathetic weaklings, I don't care what the old hag says," pointing his finger first at Kagome, "you are not Kikyo," then changing his direction towards Jin, "and you are no warrior. I am outta' here." "Inuyasha wait!" yells Kagome. Jin simply scowls in the hanyos general direction, then turns to Kagome. "He can't worry about him now, what we've gotta' do is go after that overgrown canary and try to keep it from hurting any innocents, here get on." Jin extends his hand down to Kagome and lifts Kagome onto his horse with him, and with a snap of the reigns they take off after the foul tempered monster and the demon crow too.

A short distance away, the carrion crow discovers a helpless little village, where the villagers go about their various daily activities. They never see the giant bird coming, as it makes a dive at bridge grabbing a helpless little boy who is simply strolling along with his mom. Inuyasha still on the demons trail sees this violent act and leaps into action. "Heh, looking for your next meal already huh? Well you seem to have forgotten that you gotta' go through me first." He leaps off of the ledge he is currently standing on claws outstretched ready to strike. It is at this moment that Kagome and Jin with the aid of his horse have managed to catch up with the demon boy, "Inuyasha wait!" Yells Kagome, "you might hit the kid." Finishes Jin, Inuyasha simply smirks his trademark smirk, "leave me alone you two I know what I'm doin'." And with that Inuyasha unleashes his signature move, "IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!!" With a loud slash the demon bird is reduced to shreds, blood and gore pour into the river below, along with one very frightened little boy. Inuyasha then lands on a rock and looks into the roaring waters frantically, "where is it? Where's the Jewel?" Meanwhile on the far side of the river the villagers scramble in an attempt to save the drowning little boy, but only two people have enough sense to do something useful, Kagome yanks off her shoes and socks and is about to jump in, when a large bundle in shoved into her hands, she looks at the bundle being composed of a majority of Jin's things and then looks up to see her friend dive in her stead with a cry of, "hang on kid!" Jin swims furiously in trying to catch up with the little boy who was in the process of drowning and being swept away by the current. As Jin paddles through the water one thought goes through his head. "My mom's never gonna' let me live this down. "Take the lifeguard job over the summer. It might be useful over someday." If I ever see her again I guess I'm gonna' have to thank her."

All the while on the opposite shore the various villagers watch with bated breath, at what might happen to one of their youngest members, also taking the time to murmur and gossip amongst each other. "How can he do that?" asks one man, "he's so fast." Says another, a younger girl blushes at Jin's physical fitness, "he must be very strong!" "No human could possibly be this fast, he must be a water imp, a water imp I tell you." Meanwhile Jin had finally managed to catch up to the little boy and then grabs the helpless child. "I gotcha' now hold on tight." One of the villagers points excitedly at the scene. "Look he's on his way back. This is amazing, what a day, what a man, what an imp." Jin would've sweatdropped if we wasn't so busy focusing on keeping himself and the little boy on his back from drowning. "Hey stupid, why didn't you grab the Jewel." Jin just glares at the demon boy before letting the boy go. A woman, most likely the boys mother, rushes up to the two, "Oh, my baby." "Mommy, I was so scared." Jin smiles gently at the small scene before waving to Kagome to show that he was alright. The woman stands back up after hugging her son and bows deeply to Jin, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, stranger for saving my son." Jin blushes at the praise, rubbing the back of his head in an embarrassed manner, "oh, it was nothin' just doin' my civic duty miss." Meanwhile under the water, the various pieces that were once the giant crow demon, begin to convulse and are drawn towards each other, they recombine and mere seconds later the crow demon comes shooting out of the water, practically unharmed. Inuyasha lets out an annoyed groan, "I knew this was gonna' happen. Hey you two quit standing around he's getting away." Jin looks up at the demon, "aw man, how are we gonna' catch him now." Suddenly as if on cue a small piece of the demon crow, i.e. a foot, that is still clutching the boys shoulder suddenly starts jerking towards its owner. That's when Kagome gets an idea, she turns towards one of the villagers, "hey can I borrow your bow?" "Uh, sure, but it's so far away now." "Never-mind that just give it to me!" As Kagome prepared to set her plan in motion Inuyasha just scoffs at the girl, "no way she's gonna' hit it." As Kagome prepares an arrow it is revealed that she tied the foot to her arrow. "This has to work, it's gotta' work." As the lets the arrow fly, Inuyasha sees the modifications Kagome made and realizes the idea, "I get it she's shootin' the foot." Now it is Jin's turn to put two and two together, "Oh I see, the foot can't help but be drawn towards the jewel, which means that this is a guaranteed hit. There's no way it can miss."

The arrow flies straight and true, and hits the mark. The demon hollers in pain before exploding into another mass of blood and gore, while a bright purple light shines in the sky, brighter than any star in the sky including the sun. This otherworldly glow comes from the sacred jewel which suffered a fatal blow from Kagome's arrow, the jewel cracks and creaks before finally exploding into a colossal number of purple and pink shards, that zoom across the sky like a million shooting stars. Kagome stares at the light, "what's going on up there?" Jin covers his face with his arms, "I don't like the look of this." Meanwhile in Kaede's village the villagers look up at the bright glowing streaks criss-crossing the heavens, "Lady Kaede look at the sky." "Ay I see it, an' I not like the looks of it." Later on as the sun sets in the west, the trio of intrepid travelers find themselves brushing through brush and picking through shrubs looking for the sacred jewel. After looking under quite possible the hundredth rock in an hour Inuyasha casts an exasperated glance at the reincarnated priestess, "are you sure it fell around here?" "I'm sure, at least I think I am." Jin looks at his friend worriedly, "are you okay? You seem kind of distracted." "I'm fine Jin, I'm just still worried about that weird light." Suddenly to the surprise of everyone there, the head of the demon crow falls out of the sky beak wide open ready to take Kagome's head off. But before it could get close, Jin yanks Kagome out of the way, while Inuyasha dices the thing with his claws. Then from the corpse something lands on the ground, with a light clink. Kagome bends down to pick it up, "I hope this isn't what I think it is." Jin tilts his head to the side in confusion, "ano, what is it?" Kagome looks at the tiny crystal splinter in her hand, "I think that it's a shard of the sacred jewel." Jin's head tilts to the side in confusion again and follows it with a very confused sounding, "ORO?" while Inuyasha yells at the top of his lungs, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

Next time: down the rabbit hole and back again, one left behind!


	4. down the rabbit hole and back again

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound.

A Jin shirinue fanfic

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

Chapter 3: down the rabbit hole and back again, one left behind!

Come the following day, a peaceful breeze blows through the trees, as birds sing their simple songs. After a few moments the piece is interrupted by a feminine yell, belonging to a certain girl from the future, "I can't believe this!" We turn our attention to a river Kagome sitting in it, nekkid' as the day she was born. "How can they not know what a bath is?" she sinks down into the river up to her chest, shivering the whole time, "s-s-so, c-c-cold." A distance away on the shore sit both Jin and Kaede, the boy with his back turned towards the water and blindfolded, for obvious reasons, he then calls to his bathing friend "Kagome are you sure that this is a good idea?" Kaede nods her head sagely, "you friend is right young one, you'll catch your death if ye don't get out." Kagome turns towards the two and calls back to them. "I can't, I'm covered with blood and dirt, and my hair feels like it hasn't been washed in weeks." Kagome then dives beneath the water and swims around for a little while, contemplating everything that has happened over the past 24 hours. We then flash back to last night with everyone gathered around the single shard of the sacred jewel that the three youths were able to find. Inuyasha yelling his head off, "What did you do? Leave it you to break it you stupid girl." Jin then slugs the demon boy in the arm, "hey leave her alone dog breath, like she knew this was gonna' happen." Inuyasha then spins towards the human boy, "you wanna' tussle punk?" "Name the time and the place mongrel!" The two growl aggressively at one another for a moment before lady Kaede decides to intervene. "Enough both of you, now technically it was not Kagome who broke it, but the crows foot that was attached to her _arrow_. And it as Jin says, none of you could have predicted that this would have happened. As ye three saw, the jewel has now been scattered across the land into many different places. One hundred, or one thousand we do not know. But no matter how many shards there are, one thing is for certain, it will take only one in the wrong hands to bring disaster to our land." Kagome then looks very down cast, "I'm sorry I had no idea." Jin simply reaches out and places an encouraging hand on her shoulder while throwing her a kind smile. "Listen well all of ye, it will take all three of you working together to recover the shards of the jewel." Inuyasha smirks yet again, "you won't catch me arguing, seein' as I'm one of those wrong hands you mentioned." Kaede sighs, "ay, that be true enough." Kagome's face becomes even more downcast, she then thinks to herself, "but, I wanna' go home, and I'm sure Jin needs to get back too."

We return to the present as Kagome continues to swim in an attempt to remove the grime that had built up on her skin over the past few days. "How am I supposed to help Inuyasha any way? If anything Jin would probably be a better choice than me." Kagome then surfaces and looks up, to see Inuyasha staring intently at her, Kagome then responds as any girl would, with a high pitched scream, then she reacted as only she could, with a cry of "SIT BOY!" Inuyasha then crashes to the ground beneath his seat ending up right next to Jin and Kaede. Jin sighs and faces towards the demon boys general direction "Ho, boy just when I thought you couldn't get any stupider." Kaede's response to the situation is slightly different however, she turns towards the demon boy and the asks, "be ye alright Inuyasha?" The dog boy pries his face up from the ground and growls angrily at the beads adorning his neck, "damn it! I forgot about this stupid necklace of yours." At this time Kagome has situated herself behind a bush while putting on a fresh set of clothes, "serves you right for spying on me! You peeping tom." Inuyasha just scoffs at the girls accusations. "Heh, shows what you know. The only reason I'm down here is so I can," Kaede the interrupts Inuyasha's train of thought. "Ye came here to steal this shard correct?" Holding up said object in her withered hand, Inuyasha simply turns around and pouts, "you think you're pretty smart doncha' you old hag." Kaede places the shard back into the folds of her robe, while closing her eyes in concentration, and possibly to help her deal with the irate demon boy. "Ye think to do it alone do ye? Ye forget only yon girl can find the shards, while you only have the power to vanquish those who hold the shards once their found." Inuyasha then points a finger at Jin, "well why does he have to come, he's practically worthless." Jin scowls at the dog boy, "Hey buddy, Kagome's my best friend, as long as were stuck here, where she goes, I go, I wouldn't trust you alone with her for a microsecond." Inuyasha just turns back away and continues to pout. Kagome then walks up to the group dressed in priestess robes that Kaede supplied her. She frowns at Inuyasha, "you really hate me, don't you." Inuyasha for once is silent, as he stares at Kagome he can't help but see the resemblance between her and the fallen priestess Kikyo.

Mean while a great distance away we stumble upon a eerie cave bathed in an unholy red light, while deep with in the recesses of the crag we hear a voice, a feminine voice. "Oh, me, oh, my!" The woman stretches, "Fifty years later and the sacred jewel finally resurfaces." The woman takes a red comb and strokes it through the long hair of a severed human skull. "And to think, I'd almost given up on it." The woman chuckles her laugh full of evil intent. Back at the river, one of the women from the village approaches Lady Kaede, "Lady Kaede, you must help, it's my daughter." The wizened woman nods sagely, "I see, take me to her at once." As the two women begin to leave Kaede turns back towards the youths, "I will check on ye all later, please try not to fight." The three are silent for a moment until Inuyasha turns to Kagome, "Hey," "yeah" she answers. Inuyasha with a look of the utmost seriousness on his face, then simply says, "get undressed." Jin for some reason even though we wasn't eating or drinking anything starts choking, while Kagome in an emotional fit, smacks Inuyasha over the head with a large rock. Inuyasha groans while nursing the large goose egg that was now forcing its way out of his silver hair, he shoots up and points behind him towards Kagome's school uniform, "I didn't say get naked stupid. I just can't stand seeing you in those clothes!" Kagome frowns at the demon boy, "why because I look so much like Kikyo?" Inuyasha just looks away and mutters, "that's got nothin' to do with it." Steam would've probably shoot out of Kagome's ears if it was physically possible. "Oh, come on! My little brother is more mature than this guy," she thinks to herself. After taking a couple deep cleansing breaths Kagome then begins to speak to Inuyasha again, "look I don't wanna' do this either. But we've got to work together." Inuyasha glances at the girl in front of him before turning his nose up, "you seem to forget girly, _I_ don't have to do anything. It's _you_ who _needs_ me." Kagome's temper flairs again, "oh I get it. So you wouldn't care if I just went back home." Kagome whirls around and walks away, it takes Inuyasha a moment to realize what's going on "hey! Where ya goin?" Kagome gathers her things, "what do you care? I'm going home. Goodbye Inuyasha." Jin the shoots up into a proper standing position, "hey Kagome wait up." Inuyasha also stands up and leaps after the raven haired girl. "Yeah, you can't leave." Kagome just keeps walking, "first of all my name isn't "you" take a lesson from Jin and say my name right." Inuyasha fumes for a moment at the thought of being inferior to Kagome's human friend, before he continues trying to get her to stop, "just wait stupid!" But Kagome just keeps walking, "my name isn't stupid either." Finally Inuyasha looses his patience and begins all out yelling at Kagome, "WILL, YOU JUST HEAR ME OUT!" Kagome then finally turns around, "why? So you can try and stop me?" Inuyasha holds his hand out expectantly, "no, so you can give me your jewel shard." Jin slaps his forehead and squeezes the bridge of his nose, "good god, what is wrong with this guy." Kagome takes out the little pouch holding the single jewel shard. "You mean this?" She asks innocently, Jin backing away for personal safety, following the anticipated, "SIT BOY!" followed by a flash and a crash finds himself eating dirt yet again, while Kagome rushes off. "Kagome wait!" Calls Jin, but after seeing she won't come back right away he decides to work on the other half of the problem. "Real smooth dip shit." Inuyasha shoots up and gets right in Jin's face, "watchu' call me." "You heard me pall. Now I may look like an everyday human to you, but I've got pretty sharp hearing, and I'm Kagome's friend. And I know her well enough to know that you hurt her feelings, again." Inuyasha just scoffs and looks away, "yeah well it's apparently not my problem anymore, and what makes you think you could help us, even if we decide to do this, your just a human." Jin's hands curl into fists, his first are so tightly wound that small flecks of blood could be seen dribbling down his fingers. "I maybe human but that's why I gotta go along with you guys, so Kagome can actually have somebody to relate to, somebody who actually cares. Since love and affection appear to be forigen concepts to you," Jin however is unable to finish his tirade, as Inuyasha starts running after Kagome, "HEY!" yelled Jin. "Don't you walk away when I'm talking to you buster. Hey! I'm trying to help you here man."

Meanwhile, a ways away from this scene of emotional distress, we turn our attention back towards the village, where Kaede finally arrives at the woman's hut. "Hmm, collapsed without warning did she?" Kaede ponders thoughtfully. The woman nods nervously, "aye, though she seemed perfectly fine just this morning." Kaede carefully ponders the scene before her as the ailing girl lies on her futon, covered in a blanket. After scrutinizing the scene before her with a critical eye, Kaede then realizes that something is terribly wrong. Holding her hand in front of the woman she declares her warning, "no stay back, something here be amiss." Suddenly the girl jerks upwards and hovers in the air in an inhuman manner. Kaede then notices something extending from the girls arms and hands, its very fine so it was difficult to see at first, but then she realizes what she's looking at, "it looks like hair." Suddenly a meat cleaver lying on the floor shoots up into the air and is caught deftly by the "flying girl", mere seconds before she rushes towards the two spectators. We now turn ourselves towards the old well in the forest where Kagome stands there scrutinizing the hole in the ground. "That's where Jin and I came out, so it should take us right back." The looks down the well and sees a large pile of bones at the bottom, making her eye widen in surprise. She then thinks back to something Kaede said to her, "we call it the 'bone-eaters' well. It is the final resting place for the bodies of many monsters, though the _flesh_ of those bones disappear quickly enough." Kagome looks down at the bones in realization, "then these must be the bones of Madam Centipede." She then sits back down at the side of the well looking up at the trees, "well there's no way I'm going back down there now, and I doubt Jin would want to mingle with the skeleton of something that almost killed the both of us." She the sighs sadly and looks up at the passing clouds, "so what should we do now." Then something odd happens, a leaf that is drifting gently through the air is suddenly cut clean in half, Kagome's eyes widen in confusion she then stands up to try and determine just what happened, when something sharp brushes past the side of her face leaving a small cut across her right cheek. She then looks back up to see dozens, if no hundreds, of wires crisscrossing around the area immediately next to the well. Kagome eyes the web critically, before realizing something, "it looks like, HAIR?" At this moment Kagome then hears, giggling, the giggling of a woman. "Oh, me, oh, my, so you _can_ see it then." Kagome looks upwards to see a strange woman standing on one of the odd hair cables, like it was a tightrope. The woman is wearing a one piece black outfit with a deeply plunging neckline, revealing her well developed assets. She also has a yellow sash wrapped around her waist, with a katana at her side, and fingerless gloves on her hands, and her short black hair tied back with a red ribbon. The woman continues to speak, her pink eyes filled with blood lust, "my hair net I mean." Kagome shakes off her surprise before asking the standard question in these situations, "who are you?" But the woman doesn't answer Kagome's question right away, instead choosing to continue glareing at the girl from the future, "of course we _all_ know that seeing not enough."

Our attention now turns back towards the village, or more precisely a short distance away. We see Inuyasha leaping through the trees in his usual fashion. All the while having Jin crawl over roots and stumble over rocks trying to keep up with the hanyo. "You come back here, ya jerk. I'm not gonna' stop pestering you until you apologize to Kagome." Inuyasha however has his thoughts turned elsewhere, in fact he was thinking about the girl from the future. "Let her go," he thinks to himself, "I'm better off without her." Finally the boys arrive in the village, and are met with an unusual sight. Many of the young girls of the village floating in the air like a group of marionettes. Both boys stare at the scene for a while before Inuyasha finally decides to take action, "well guess I shouldn't have to ask what you're all up to." Then the possessed girls rush towards the unusual pair weapons at the ready, Inuyasha flexes his claws while Jin slips into one of his improvised fighting stances, "finally, something fun to do," chuckles the half demon, while Jin has only one thought going through his head at the time, "I've got a baaad feeling about this." Meanwhile back with Kagome with strange woman decides to officially introduce herself, "how do you do? I'm "Yura of the Hair" though you don't have to worry about remembering it, because you'll be dead very soon!" The woman, now known as Yura, flicks her wrist causing the various wire-like strands of hair to tighten around Kagome. "Now, I'll be taking the jewel back if you don't mind." With another flick of her wrist a strand of hair yanks the small pouch from within Kagome's robes. Yura then opens the pouch, but instead of a full jewel she finds a single shard. Yura's eyes widen in surprise at this revelation, "oh, you naughty girl, you shattered the jewel! Tell me where the rest of it is or I will be very cross with you." Kagome then yells at the demon woman, "give that back." This outburst causes several of the threads around her neck to tighten slightly before going slack again, "I repeat foolish girl, where is the rest of the jewel?" Kagome looks down in embarrassment ,"well, I, uh, don't really know." With an innocent look on her face Yura draws the sword at her side, while tilting her head sideways, "well if that is the case, I might as well finish you off right now." Yura lunges forward fully intent to cut Kagome's head clean off. Kagome gasps in surprise and while trying to back away from the demon woman, she trips and falls into the well, Yura throws her sword down the well in an attempt to kill Kagome, but the girl of the future is gone, it's almost as if she was never there. Yura's sword flies back up from the well and she deftly catches it in her waiting hand, "well that was certainly strange," comments Yura, "but come to think of it, so was that girl." Unkown to the demon woman a small cloth bundle lays folded up in front of the well, this bundle is composed of Kagome's old uniform, the only sign that she was ever there to begin with.

Back at the village Inuyasha and Jin continue to fight for their lives, Inuyasha looks at the various living puppets and realizes something, "I knew something was strange." Jin's swivels around and gapes at the demon boy, "you're just now finding this strange." Inuyasha growls at Jin, "it's not that, I recognize these girls from the village." The marionettes circle around the two while Inuyasha flexes his claws again, "you want another fight, cause if you do that fine with us." In spite of the danger of the situation Jin can't help but facefault at that last comment, "speak for yourself dog breath. I don't want to fight anybody, I'm a musician, a _pacifist_." Inuyasha scowls at Jin, "aw just shut up and start using that weird fighting style of yours, and make sure you don't go easy on them or you'll regret it." Suddenly a familiar voice calls out to the two boys, "Inuyasha, Jin, please wait." Both of them look off into the distance and crawling along the ground with a gaping wound on her shoulder is Lady Kaede, her white robe stained dark with her blood. "Please, do not hurt them this is not their doing." Inuyasha's eyes widen, "old Kaede?" "What happened to her?" Asks Jin, the two then maneuver around the human marionettes in their chosen fashions, Jin sliding under them, being careful not to look up their kimonos of course, while Inuyasha leaps over them. They both run up to the elderly priestess, both, surprisingly, with concern in their eyes. "What happened to you Kaede-sama?" Asks Jin, "yeah, you look more terrible than usual." Says Inuyasha, in spite of her pain Kaede's face develops a deadpanned look as she glares at Inuyasha, "must ye treat all old women thus?" Inuyasha then gestures towards the various women around them, "about these girls, its either us or them. And quite frankly I choose us." "But someone else is controlling them." Warns Kaede, "where is Kagome tell me both of you know where she is." Inuyasha just scoffs while Jin sadly shakes his head, "Sorry, Miko-sama." Says Jin, "the last thing she said to us was something about going back home." Says Inuyasha, "besides what's the big deal? I can handle this easily." "Nay, you must not hurt them Inuyasha." That's when Jin gets a confident smirk on his face, "so deadly force is forbidden eh?" he then cracks his knuckles in a very Inuyasha-esque manner, and "_this _is why you need me dog boy." Inuyasha scoffs at both humans, "your hearts bleed in more ways than one, but if either of you are planning on seein' tomorrow we've gotta' do something now." "Listen to me Inuyasha, control the strings and ye control the puppets! If not," Kaede is unable to finish her words of wisdom, as Inuyasha then rushes forward, "I don't see you helping old woman." He dodging a slash from a woman with a cleaver. "The hair lads find ye the hair and mayhap they will reawaken." Both boys look around in a confused manner, "Hair?" they both ask at the same time, "I don't see any hair you old hag," "neither do I Kaede-sama."

A distance away, sitting on the branch of a tree is Yura with the many wire-like strands wrapped around her delicate, pale fingers, "oh, yes I'll definitely be wanting these two form my collection." Back on the battlefield Inuyasha slashes his claws at a girl in blue kimono, but she then launches into the air, and comes back down wielding her hand ax, and clearly aiming to separate Inuyasha's head from his shoulders. The other girls then fly forwards and begin to circle around the fighting duo, "tis, a trap flee the hair lads!" but it's too late both boys find themselves completely tangled up and tied together in the wire-like hair. As the girl with the hand ax lunges forward again, Inuyasha somehow manages to leap back dragging Jin back with him and saving both of them from being beheaded. Inuyasha then smirks once again, "whoever's doin' this ain't very smart. Even all tangled up I don't need to see, to drag whoever's on the other end to us." Jin's eyes widen in realization, "hey yeah, and when this creep gets close enough we nab him." But from her position Yura is able to determine what the two boys are up to, and then allows the hair to go very loose, causing both boys to tumble backwards into a tree. Yura then manipulates the hair binding them both good and tight. Kaede's eyes widen in horror as the thread gets ever tighter, easily threatening to cut their heads clean off, "Jin, Inuyasha." Then with a lot of yelling and all of his strength Inuyasha manages to force both him and Jin free from the hair, which then cuts tree behind them into pieces. Back with Yura her hair strands go as slack as a string, a look of disappointment on her face, "the hair has gone slack, the cut must not have been clean." Back in the village Inuyasha and Jin both cough and sputter as the ability to breath quickly returns to them, "aw, man" says Inuyasha, "any longer and we probably would have been goners." "And because of you, we aren't thanks Inuyasha." Inuyasha blinks in confusion at Jin's gratitude, but simply shrugs it off with a scoff and a offside comment of, "yeah, well I was saving my own skin, you were just along for the ride." Jin simply smiles and says, "whatever." Of course it's not over yet as now the men from the village have received the puppet treatment and begin to circle around the three free souls. Jin looks around slumps down to his knees, and shouts to the high heavens, "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?" Inuyasha places himself between the living puppets and the two humans mumbling under his breath, "you know somethin' I'm getting sick of this." Kaede then manages to stagger into a standing position, "save yourselves lads, forget this old woman." Inuyasha predictably scoffs at this, "aw, spare me the noble act will ya, you old hag." Jin smiles at lady Kaede, "don't worry Kaede-sama I will not allow any of my comrades to die." Kaede then flinches in pain and stumbles to the ground, Jin rushes to the elderly woman's side, "hey are you okay?" Kaede's only response is a groan of pain, as she clutches her wounded shoulder. Inuyasha merely frowns at this turn of events, "well this is just perfect."

Meanwhile back at her branch in the tree Yura stares at two fine objects with increasing fascination, "this hair, one long and silver, the other dark like the rest, yet at the same time different." Our attention is then changed back towards Inuyasha and the others, Inuyasha is leaping through the air carrying not only Kaede but Jin as well. "Both of you hang on ya' hear." Jin looks down at the ground far below them and tightens his grip, "you don't need to tell me twice." But the trip won't be easy, as before them is another net of hair, "be careful Inuyasha, lest you touch the hair and," before Kaede can finish her sentence a strand of hair gets caught on Inuyasha's foot, the strand strains, then snaps, not even leaving a mark, the same fate occurs with any other strand that has the misfortune of being in Inuyasha's path. The dog boy glances back towards the elderly priestess, "you say somethin' old woman?" Kaede blanches after remembering that Inuyasha is a lot tougher than the average human, and mumbles a "never mind". All the while Yura continues to chase the fleeing trio following the path of broken hairs, "they're being stubborn. But it will be worth it, I must have this hair belonging to these two unique men." Several hours later the three remaining heroes stop beneath a tall tree in order to sort out what's going on. "You mean to tell me that you can see the hair?" Asks Inuyasha, Jin ponders this for a moment before turning to the wounded priestess, "if that's true could you tell us where it's being pulled from?" Kaede turns her good eye towards the human boy, "don't be absurd boy, with me in this condition it would be nigh impossible. And assuming I _did_ know where this hair was coming from, ye must find Kagome." Jin's eyes widen for a moment, "you mean she can see it too?" Kaede flinches in pain before answering the musician turned martial artist. "Aye, and to defeat this foe ye'll both be needing that power, without it ye have no hope, none." Kaede then closes her eye and relaxes. Inuyasha stares at the old woman while Jin begins to chew his nails with worry, "Inuyasha, is she, is she?"

Back in modern day Japan Kagome finally recovers form being pushed into the well by Yura. She looks around, "where am I?" She gingerly feels the ground around her and she then realizes where she is. "I'm in the well, which is where I fell when the woman pushed me back." It is then she heard a familiar elderly voice, and its not Kaede. "But we've already looked in here at least a dozen times." Kagome looks up to find the bright light of a flashlight glaring back down at her. "But, grandpa, I keep telling you this is exactly where they fell." The elder-most Higurashi turns towards his grandson, "are you sure that you weren't dreaming?" "I'm sure I wasn't." they both peer down the well to see Kagome sitting there, in her priestess garments. Kagome's eyes widen in surprise and joy, "Grandpa? Sota?" Once she has been removed from the well Kagome looks around and sees what she would expect to see after climbing out of the well. Tall buildings, cars, the shrine, everything is as it should be. "I've come home, back to my own time!" It was then that Grandpa Higurashi decides to speak to his granddaughter, "you were gone for three days, you could have called or something." Sota then says, "and why are you wearin' those weird old clothes." It's now that Kagome realizes exactly what is going on, "this isn't a dream, I've finally come home." She then whips around and latches onto her grandfather, crying her eyes out, "oh, Grandpa, I was so scared." Our focus now returns to the past, the sun has finally set and twilight embraces the land. Kaede's unconscious form continues to lay on the ground, as Inuyasha and Jin place the finishing touches on a large hole in the ground. "There," says Inuyasha as he wipes the sweat from his brow, "that oughtta do it." Jin then turns to Inuyasha also wiping sweat from his face, "are you sure this is a good idea?" "It's all we can do for now, and any way it's the least I could do for the old woman anyway." Kaede's good eye opens and the tiredly glares at the hanyo as he begins to bury her in the dirt, "oi, I'm be merely resting Inuyasha, I'm not dead yet." Inuyasha mutters below his breath, "could've fooled me with that face." Before turning back to Kaede and then speaking in a louder tone, "just think of this as a hiding place for now. I'll even come back and dig you up, if I remember." Kaede's eye widens a little in surprise. "Ye, promise? Ye won't forget where ye left me?" Jin then rears up to his maximum height a performs a standard "nice guy" pose, "don't worry Kaede-sama even if the dog boy here does forget, you can count on me to remember." Kaede simply nods, and returns to her rest. Jin then turns to Inuyasha, "now all we gotta' do is find Kagome." "Easier said than done," snaps the demon boy before growling angrily, "curse that stupid woman, takin' off on us right when we need her." "Hey how was she supposed to know we'd get attacked today, its not her fault. Besides we don't have time to argue, the freak who's the cause of all this trouble could be anywhere, I say we get going now." In spite of his extreme dislike of the human boy, Inuyasha had to agree with him, this time.

Meanwhile in modern Japan, we find Kagome enjoying a relaxing hot bath, "ah, I must have died and gone to heaven." Sighs Kagome as the warm water works its cleansing magic. Back in the feudal era, Inuyasha and Jin both run through the forest, keeping their eyes pealed for any potential threat. All the while Yura continues to work her evil ways on the forest, laughing evilly as her hair strands draw closer and closer to their intended prey. "Oh little girl," Yura calls out in a vile sing-song voice "come-out, come-out wherever you are." All the while in modern Japan Kagome simply enjoys the simple hot bath.

Next: chapter four: Yura of the Demon Hair, and Jin of the Pure Sound.


	5. Yura of the Hair, and Jin of the Sound

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound.

A Jin Shirinue fanfic

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

Future reference: () surrounds sentences spoken in English, , surrounds thoughts

Chapter 4: Yura of the Demon Hair, and Jin of the Pure Sound.

Our story continues in modern day Japan, the sun has long since set, and the moon is high in the sky. But while all is quiet on outside of the Higurashi shrine, there is much going on indoors. The two eldest and the youngest member of the Higurashi family sit at their kitchen table descusing what happened to young Kagome. Her mother turns to the elderly head of the family. "Don't tell me you actually belive her story father?" The eldermost member of the Higurashi family closes his eyes and contemplates the tale. Sota being one of the better behaved and more loyal younger siblings, comes to the defense of his sisters story. "It's true, Kagome and Jin both fell down the well, when a monster tried tried to kidnap her, and when Jin tried to save her." Grandpa Higurashi then goes into the tail of the well, "there is a legend of the bone-eaters well. Since ancient times whatever's inside the well has consumed the corpses of monsters." Kagome's grandfather then stands with a determined look on his face a powerful monolog running through his mind. But what if the space-time continueum is disrupted by this. We cannot let that happen. A minor flury of activity later the well is "sealed" with naild on wooden bords, and various sacred slips, to keep the demonic entities at bay. "Closed it off?" asked Kagome after finishing her bath, and changing her clothes. Her grandfather nods his head, "yup. We need not worry about any more visitors from _over there_. I even used special spirit wards, just in case." Kagome simply frowns in contemplation. Back in the feudal era Inuyasha and Jin continue to run through the woods, doing every thing in their power to find Kagome. Inuyasha bends over and begins to carefully sniff the ground, when he finnaly catches whif of a familiar smell, "yeah, that's her allright I'd know her anywhere." Jin stading nearby takes a good look around where they are, and sees a very welcome sight. "Inuyasha look, it's the well." As they draw closer a certain little bundle catches Inuyasha's feral eye. "Why'd she leave her clothes here?" Jin closes his eyes and thinks very hard for a moment, before swear-snapping his fingers, "that's it, she's gone home back to our time." Inuyasha peers down the well, "through here huh?" "yep, not entirely sure how it works, but it seems that simply jumping down the well is," Jin stops midsentance as Inuyasha has already leaped down the well. "Hey, will you quit walking away while I'm talking to you." Jin then also jumps down the well, hopefully to return to the future.

Meanwhile back in the future, Kagome lies her bed currently without a care in the world, or so one would think. For the girls mind was running a mile a minute, contemplating everything that had happened over the past three days. "Was I really there? In that feudal Japan?" "Only by working together will the three of you be able to gather the shards of the jewel." Kagome shakes her head in an attept to displace the older memories, until she rememebers her first encounter with Yura. And what about that girl, the one with the hair? What did she want? Like I should even ask, the sacred jewel of course. And what about Jin, is he gonna' be able to make it back here okay. Not to mention that if that girl doesn't give the jewel back, Inuyasha's gonna be pretty upset, I can hear him already. Kagome then conjures up a mental immage of Inuyasha looking at her with the typical scowl on his face, "I never asked for your help. Just go home you'll only slow me down anyway." Kagome frowns angrely at the mental image, "what am I worrying aobut him for?" The raven haired then claps her hands together to signify her washing her hands of the enitre situation. "Well that's it then, chapter closed. From now o on its just a simple fary tale." Later that evening the Higurashi family settles down for dinner, with Sota takin to his grandfather. "Grandpa, those things you put on the well will stay on right?" The Higurashi elder smirks confidently, "of course they will, have a little faith will you boy? If theres one thing I know, its spirits and how to deal with them." Kagome looks exitedly at the meal her mother prepared for the evening, "real food!" All the while Kagome's grandfather prattles on aobut how he will defend her, and keep the spirits at bay, an the like, util Sota points somehting out to the old man, "I don't think shes listening grandpa." Yound Sota _was_ indeed right as Kagome was to exited by the delicious food set before her. "It's a wonderful day to be alive, oh I can't wait to," once again fate prevents someone from finishing their thought, as the sliding door to the kitchen opens revealing a very ticked off Inuyasha and a fairly frazzled Jin. Jin then turns to Inuyasha and says, "you know depite the fact that a monster dragged us through the well the first time, that was a surpisingly smoother rider than this one was." The other members of the Higurashi family stare with confused looks on their faces, while Kagome simply says two things, "Jin, Inuyasha?" Inuyasha's scowl deepens, "you idiot, who said you could go home?" Jin straigtens his hair, and pushes his way past the irate half demon, "hold up there demon boy, maybe if we explain the situation she might be more willing to come back with us." Kagome's confusion coninues to grow util she finnaly decides to ask a quesiton. "How did you two get back here?" Inuyasha looks at the girl with a look that screams, "are you stupid or something?" "How do you think we came back, through the well of course?" Kagome's grandfather angrely slams his hands on the table before standing up, "you lie! I placed and made those spirit wards myself! There's no way either of you could have gotten through." Inuyasha just looks at the old man like he was insane, and then thumbs towards Jin "first of all he's not a demon," then pulling out one of grandpa Higurashi's wards he then drops a real bombshell, "and I hate to break it to you old man, but these "wards" of yours they don't work." This revalation drives the elderly priest to tears.

Inuyasha being the fairly uncivilized brute that he is then grabs Kagome roughly by her arm, "come on you, we're leaving." Kagome then pulls her arm back and snaps at the hanyo, "No and you can't make me." At this moment Jin decides to intervene, he places his hands on her shoulders and looks her straight in the eye. "Kagome listen to me, things have gone downhill since you came back, most of the villagers are the demons living puppets, and Kaede has been hurt, badly." Kagome's eyes widen at this news, she never intended for any one to get hurt, she just wanted to go home. So with Inuyasha being himself, and therfor having very little patients, grabs Kagome's arm again, "so now you know what's going on you've gotta come back with us." It is then that Kagome's mom who has been silent throughout the entire event finnaly says somehting. "You stay right there!" She then walks up to Inuyasha and stares intently at the half demon, until he becomes fed up with the various sets of eyes stareing at him. "What do you want?" Mrs. Higurashi then reaches up and, starts rubbing Inuyashas ears. "Your ears are they real?" Jin and Kagome both sweatdrop at the sight in front of them. "Uh, mom that's not really cool, ya know." It's then that Kagome notices something on Inuyasha's sleve. "Inuyasha, do you see that?" Inuyasha then focuses his eyes where Kagome is looking, "I don't see anything." Now it is Kagome's turn to use the "are you really that stupid" look. There's a hair right here on your shoulder. See?" The "invisible" hair in Kagome's hand suddenly coils around her hand drawing a small amount of blood. "It moved!" Says Kagome in surprise, "what moved?" asks her brother. Kagome just stares at the strand of hair and ponders the situation, "does this mean, I'm the only one who can see it?" She then remembers what Yura said to her, and something strikes her like a ton of bricks, "Oh no!" she cries and then rushes out of the house.

Kagome rushes towards the well, and is greated with a very distrubing sight, dozens of tenticles made of Yura's demonic hair. Her eyes widen in fear at the image, it is almost as if a giant octopuss made of hair has made residence within the old well. "Hair!" She gasps, "tons and tons of it." Inuyasha then walks up behind her, "so the old crone _was_ right, you do have the sight." Kagome spins around to face the demon boy, "this is all your fault! The hair followed you here." Inuyasha fumes at the accusation, "hey I'm not the only one at fault here, you boyfriend came back too." Kagome blushes, and stomps her foot, "he's not my boyfriend, he's just a friend who happens to be boy." (A.N: how many times have we heard this excuse). Jin being the most rational member of the group at the moment, then wedges himself between the two arguers and forces them away from one another. "Hey, hey, hey, we can play a game of he said she said later, right we have hairy situation on our hands." The two other time travelers stare, and sweatdrop at the pun, Jin picking up on the vibe then shrugs his shoulders, "uh, ahem, pun not intended." Unfortunately Kagome's grandfather and brother followed them outside, "Kagome," yells Sota, "whats' goin' on?" Kagome then closes the door to the shrine, "don't come in!" she then turns around a begins to assess the situation. We've gotta' find a way to stop it from coming out. As she begins to think a long hair tenticle lashes out towards the girl, forcing her to dodge to the side with a yelp. Seeing as nither the dog nor the human boy can see this strange hair its up to Kagome the give her directions."Inuyasha in front of you." "Where here?" He asks as he blindly swings his claws, still managing to cut several tentacles. But as soon as the hair is cut it immediately grows back. Kagome's stares at the situation, "even if it gets cut, it grows back." Jin tehn adds to the observation, "not to mention its everywhere, right?" As Inuyasha contiues to grapple with the "invisible" hair, Kagome then notices something, a lone strand of hair, seemingly doing nothing. That's it, it's all controlled by that single strand. she then rushes up to the strand, "Inuyasha over here, cut this one." Inuyasha swings his claws wildly, "which one?" "This one right _here_!" The girl groans in frustration, "Kagome Inuyasha can't see it, and for that neither can I." Kagome thinks for a minute and gets another idea, "Then I'll have to help him." She then reaches up and grabbs the strand, like this. She tightens her grip and gets the strand to draw blood, as the hemoglobin rich fluid trickles down the strand Inuyasha turns around and sees the blood, "Heh, now I see it." And with one swipe the control strand gets severed, the reesults are instant, the cut tenticles wither away into dust, while those that are still attached shrivel back into the well. Inuyahsa wipes his forehead, "whew, its gone." But Kagome is still worried, I don't get it, Yura already has my piece of the jewel. So why would she do somehting like this? Unless, its us she's after. Kagome turns to the two boys, "we have to go back." "I thought you didn't wanna' go back." "I may not want to but I _have_ to." If I stay here my family would be in danger. It's then that Kagome feels something being drapped over her shoulders, she looks to her right and sees that she is now wearing Inuyashas red coat. "It's made with hair of the fire rat, this way you'll at least have some protection." Kagome is caught off guard by Inuyasha's sudden generosity, "um, thank you." Inyuasha stands up with his trademark scowl on his face, "yeah, well if you didn't look so weird you wouldn't need it any way." Jin then leaps at the hanyo and chatches him in a noogie, "hey, look whose talking dog boy." Inuyasha wrestles with the human boy for a moment, "get offa' me you weirdo." Kagome can't help but giggle a little at the boys shinanigans, I don't know if they'll ever admit it or not, but those two are a lot alike. After a full minute of wrestleing the two boys finnaly settle down, Inuyasha then turns to Kagome, "any way, you ready." Kagome nods, "are _you _ready." Jin smiles, "as ready as I'll ever be dog breath." And with that the intrepid trio jump down the well.

Back in the feudal era, Yura rests in her hiding place, surrounded by hundreds of human skulls. "They'll be back any minute now." She then picks up a very pecular skull this one blood red and begins to stoke it, as one would stroke a pet. "Only this time, we won't let them get away, will we?" Many miles away Kaede lies in her improvised hideing spot awating for the two boys to retrieve her, once everything is settled of course. "Hear me Inuyasha, Kagome truly is Kikyo reborn. That will aid ye a little, yet ye will not complete ye quest until she learns of her own power. Help her find herself Inuyasha." At the bone-eaters well, a familiar set of voices echo up from the bottom. "Be careful you guys theres hair everywere down here too." Jin is the first to climb out, giving a hand to Kagome. Inuyasha then leaps out of the well, "so what your saying is, what Yura is really after, is us?" Questions Inuyasha, "well duh, I mean why else if she already had my piece of the jewel?" Both boys stiffen at this remark, especially Inuyasha, "you're piece of the je, **how in the hell did that happen**?" Kagome's eyes widen in shock at the sight before her, "there's a lot of hair here, but all _we_ need to worry about is the _main_ one. It'll lead us right to her, I'm sure of it!" Jin cracks his neck, in a fashion similar to a certain ax wielding imagin, and then his knukles, "alright so witch way do we go?" Inuyasha then steps in front of the Gaijin boy, "what do you mean we? You don't have any powers like me an' the girl." Jin growls and the pushes past the half-demon boy, "I may not have any powers, but it's like I said, Kagome's my friend and where she goes I go, I can't trust you to protect her _all_ the time." Of course Kagome is happy to have sutch loyalty from at least _one_ of her companions, but she also can't help but worry for Jins safty. For Inuyasha while being brash and tactless, does make a point, Jin doesn't appear to have any special powers and could easily be hurt in the fight, and if he got hurt protecting her, she wouldn't know what to do. "So Kagome, where to we go?" Kagome's train of thought is derailed by the question as the then finds her self face to face with her American friend. "Oh, right, we go that way." She says pointing in a certain direction. "Right, lets go Kagome-chan, Dog boy!" Back with Kaede she continues her monolog, "ye must all work together, Jin and Kagome need ye Inuyasha, as much at ye need them. Forget your differences for now and be as one!"

As our intrepid trio travel through the forest in search of Yura, something catches Jin's eye. "Hey guys, over there, it looks like a fire." They draw closer and closer to the orange light and what they stumble on is almost too grusome for words. "**What happened to their heads?**" Gasps Kagome, Inuyasha then inspects the scene. "These are all guys from the village, or their bodys any way." Jin, trying his best not to vomit bends down and examins one of the bodies, using his ammased knowledge gained from hour after hour of tv crime dramas. "Looks the head came clean off, whoever this Yura person is, she's good, she's very good." With a saddened look on her face Kagome bends over one of the bodies, much to Inuyasha's chagrin. "Oh, what now? I better not hear that your **scared **or you wanna' go home or," Inuyasha stops as Jin slugs the demon boy in the arm, as Kagome stands back up holding a bow and a quiver of arrows, "actually I thought I'd borrow these." If we don't stop her now, even more people will die. After Jin also borrows a new weapon, i.e. a wakizashi blade, the three take off to find the demon. "You know not gonna' hit anything so why bother?" "I just need to practice a little." Inuyasha scoffs, "practice? Don't you mean learn?" Kagome scowls at the demon boy, "I'll do it this time, I really belive I can." Inuyasha blinks in surprise at the girls determination, then again, maybe she'll do it after all. Suddenly a bunch of hair tentacles come shooting over the hill at the intrepid trio. "Here they come!" Yells Kagome. Inuyasha leaps into the air as Kagome begins giving him directions on where to dodge. "Left, right, duck." Inuyasha lands on the ground panting at the effort of carrying two people. "There are to many of them, you've gotta' help Inuyasha." Inuyasha whirls around at the girl, "help! That's what you're here for isn't it? You're almost as useless as your friend." Jin of course scowls at this and is about to argue the demons opinion that is until Kagome begins shouting out directions again. "Left, left!" Inuyasha leaps into the air again, "argh, their right behind us." Inuyasha groans, "ugh, give me a break." And Inuyasha gets his break, but not the way he means, a set of tenticles wrap around his legs and arms stopping him in his tracks and throwing Jin and Kagome off of him. Both humans land on the ground with a thud, Kagome levers herself up to a seated position, "Inuyasha!" Jin looks up at the hanyos situation, (Oh, slag!) he curses in english. Kagome then sees something very distrubing, "Oh, Kami!" "what? What is it?" "It's a giant hair ball, it must Yura's hideout." And speak of the devil, or in this case demon, Yura decends from the heavins like a perveted angle of death. Deftly landing on a set of wires, "oh, my, look at the cute little doggie. _You_ must be Inuyasha." The dog boy scowls at the hair witch, "and _you_ must be Yura, and how do you know my name?" Yura smirks sinisterly, "ohh, I don't know _wire_ service?" Jin sweatdrops and swats his forhead at the horrible pun but Yura continues. "Everyones saying that half-demon Inuyasha is "playing fetch" with some reincarnated shirne maden, and a bizzare forigner." Inuyasha fumes at the comment, "ME, with those half wit humans?" Yura's evil smirk deepens, "well your all half-wits to me." She says as the pulls out a very familiar crystal, "I mean just look at what you've done to the sacred jewel."

Kagome gasps, "that's the jewel shard she stole from me." Yura fingers the tiny crystal in her hand. "Once I've finished wrapping things up with all of you, I will go find the rest for myself." Inuyasha smirks at the demon woman, "you? Take care of me? When this is over I'll make you wish you never met me, or even heard my name!" With an incredible show of force, Inuyasha the snappes the hair cords around his ankel and swings towards the evil woman. Yura smirks an Inuyasha's bravado, and then draws back the red comb in her right hand and swings her hand forward causing another hair tentical to shoot towards Inuyasha. He trys to dodge but its no use as he soon finds himself tied up once again. Yura lands on a set of wires positioned right behind Inuyasha and begins to run her fingers through his hair. "Such _pretty_ hair, but you haven't taken very good care of it have you? I mean just look at all these split ends." Inuyasha strugles against his bonds, "get offa me!" Yura leaps off the wires she is currently standing on, dives down towards another set, bounces off of it, and with all the agility of a trapeeze artst flies past Inuyasha cutting his shoulder with her blade, "Inuyahsa!" "Inuyasha!" Yells the two teens of the future. Yura lands on a set of wires stationed above the hanyo, she chuckles sinseterly as she licks the blood off of her blade, "I'm going to chop you up into little, tiny pieces." Yura leaps forward again set on finishing off Inuyasha once and for all, when suddenly an arrow flys past forcing her back to yet another set of wires. The two demons look over and see Kagome standing there another arrow ready, with Jin standing close by with his weapon at the ready, "let him go now," yells Kagome, "I promise this time I won't miss." Yura's head cocks to the side in a confused manner, "the girl who fell in the well." Her gaze then shifts to Jin, oh, and the forigner as well, he does seem to have an ususual charm about him, I might just kill him last. her reavelry is then cut short as Kagome yells again, "you heard me!" Yura's attention then turns back to Inuyasha, "oh, she wants you back Inuyasha! What a sweet widdle doggie you must be." Inuyasha then turns towards the two humans, "I told you to hide, not draw attention to yourselves." Yura fingers her blade, "of course her hair is nowhere near as pretty as yours Inuyasha, or an unique as the forigners, but waste not want not I suppose." Kagome fumes at the comment, ""not as pretty as his," huh? Shows what you know, you live in a world where they don't even have shampoo!" Jin sweatdrops at this comment, "uh, Kagome you I care about you but, pelease try to your priorities straight." Kagome then launches another arrow, but the aim is wide and it comes dangerously close to hitting Inuyasha. "HEY, watch were your aiming that thing will ya?" And with a thunk the arrow buries itself in the hairball that Yura calls a home. The impact zone then begins to glow with a bizzare pink light, and once it subsides Yura's home begins to fall apart, reavealing that the hair is still attached to the skulls of the dead. Kagome blanches at the sight, Jin gaggs, Yura's face addopts a panicked look as her home has becomed so severly damaged, while Inuyasha's eyes widen, "those are the guys from the village!" Yura turns to face Inuyasha once again, "I'll be adding your head to my collection as well, once I separate the pretty hair from you head, it's wasted on you anyway." Yura then picks up her comb, "but first things first, that woman has to die!" She swings her comb forward causing a long tentacle of hair to swing towards Kagome. The poor girl is frozen in fear and can't dodge in time. "Kagome look out!" Jin leaps forward and knocks Kagome to the ground the tenticle then slams into his side, with a sickening crunch. Jin then flys back and coughs up blood, time seems to slow down as the human boy soars through the air his mind races at a mile a minute, so this is how it ends huh? I'm pretty sure that Yura will take another shot at Kagome once she's sure I'm out of the way. Then she'll kill Inuyasha and that'll be the end of that. Well at least I'll keep my last promise to dad, I died fighting to protect the people who are precious to me. But now I can't help but think that Inuyasha was right, I don't have any special powers, I was nothing more than a one time human shield. I just wish I could do more. As he finishes this thought he lands on the ground with a sickening thud, but through some bizare law of physics, or lack thereof, his tuneing fork necklace stikes at a rock behind him, realeasing powerful soundwaves, Inuyasha cringes in pain as the sound reaches his sensitive ears, and suprisingly even Yura flinches at the sound and if forced to cover her ears. The tuneing fork then flies up and passes right in front of Jin's forehead, the soundwaves enter his body causing the same face on the tuneing fork to appear on his forehead. The energy flows through his body healing his injuries, Jin's eyes snap open in surpirse and elation as the energy triggers somehting deep within, and at this moment Jin can only think of one thing to say, "HENSHIN!" The boys body is encased in purple flames startleing everyone, especially Kagome, what's going on? The enflamed being stands up and with a wave of his hand the flames disperce reavealing a new person.

This one is just as tall as Jin but is covered from head to foot in indimidating purple armor. On his forehead is the same symbol as is on his tuneing fork, with two small horns adorning the sides of the symbol, the large black eyepieces obscure his eyes and large portion of his upper face, his lowerface is covered by a mouth piece that srangely resembles the grill on a furnis, his arms are covered with purple and silver gauntlets. His shoulders are addorned with white plates that resemble bat wings, while his chest and abdomen is covered with a black form fitting plate, aournd his waist is a golden belt, attached with a round buckle, with the kanji for drum shining proudly, his legs are covered with powerful looking purple armor, with a silver "bracer" around his ankle, his tennis shoes were replaces with two black metallic boots with silver soles. "Jin" stares at his new body for a few moments, before deciding exactly what to say, "well, that's interesting." Everyone snaps out of their surprise, the first thing out of Inuyasha's lips is avery articulate, "WHAT THE HELL?" Kagome stares at the being that was mere seconds ago her dieing best friend, is that really you Jin? While Yura's response is very different, she actually begins to shake, "this is impossible you were human only a few seconds ago." Jin "smirks" behind his helmit, "well just goes to show, I'm full of surprises. And it's only fair for me to warn you right off the bat, I'm pretty strong." (A.N: play double action sword form) Yura screams in anger, and launches another tenticle of hair at the transformed human, Jin then curls his fingers in a very Inuyasha-like fashion, and with a cry of "_onidume_" his finger tips extend into claws that easily shred throught the steel like hair. Yura's scowl deepens as she then sends a tenticle of hair to sneak up of the now demonized boy. "Jin behind you!" Yells Kagome, but thankfully while the warning was apreciated, it was unessicary as Jin in his demon form has gained a sense of hearing that could compete with Inuyasha's powerful ears, as such Jin heard the tentilcles comeing long before Kagome saw them, he then leaps into the air and shoots towards Yura cocking his right fist back and then letting lose a powerful hay-maker. Yura gets knocked back but she then rightens her self and draws her sword, Inuyasha uses this opportunity to make his own move, he drives one of his clawed hands into the open wound on his chest, covering them in his blood, he then swings his claws forward performing his second signature move, "BLADE OF BLOOD!" several curved blades made of pure energy shoot forward and slice Yura's sword hand clean off. As her hand tumbles down the hairs around Inuyashas left arm losen significally. Yura's hand gets stopped in mid hair by a group of strands as she huffs at her predicament, "now that's just not fair." Inuyasha just laughs, "hah, serves you right." Yura then wheels towrads Inuyahsa, "I'd almost fogetten about you doggie. I do wish that you'd show some restraint when addressing a lady. Were you brought up in a dog house or something?" "Maybe he was," says Jin coming out of nowhere, "but I'm not complaining at the moment." Jin then flies down delivering a massive flying kick to Yura's side. Yura grabs another set of strands and manipulates them causing the skulls to fly towards the two good demons. Inuyasha simply crushes them with a few well placed punches, while Jin knocks them away with a barrage of kicks. Then Yura's sword hand, still clutching its blade, whiz's by the heads of the two warriors missing them my mere inches. "Hold still," pouts Yura, "it's harder to hit you two when you move." Inuyasha swings his hand forward producing more energy blades, "Yeah I bet." Yura then conjures up a wall of hair, stopping Inuyasha's attack in its tracks, it is a this moment Yura implements a sneak attack, her sword hand swirves around and drives itself clean through Inuyasha's left shoulder, "Inuyasha!" yells Jin. The dog boy falls to the ground with a thud, while Yura's had replaces itself on her wrist, as a large set of hairs litterally stitch the hand back into place, not even leaving a scar. She smiles evily at the hapless half-demon before her, "half-demon, half-power, I should have figured." Inyasha merely growls. "Your dissapointed aren't you?" The hair witch asks as the places the pouch with the jewel shard wthin her cleavage. "I'll bet you were planning to use this to turn into a full demon weren't you?"

Jin's "eyes" widen she still has the jewel! Oh what to? What to do? It's then that Jin gets an idea, an idea that makes him shiver a little, (oh boy, I'm gonna regret this.) Jin leaps towards the two combatants as Yura raises her sword, "now hold still! If I don't get a clean cut, the blood is gonna' stain your beautiful hair." "I don't think so! _Onidume!_" Jin flys forward, and much to his future chagrin drives his clawed hand right into the middle of Yura's chest and clean out the other side. When Jin pulls his hand out of the gaping wound the pouch with the jewel shard falls to the ground right in front of Inuyasha. Jin then shakes the blood off of his hand, "ugh, I'm never gonna' live this down." "Serves you right you witch." Then as Inuyasha reaches for the jewel, a foot stomps on his hand, "what the?" exclaimes Jin as Yura's hand launches forward as she begins the strangle the transformed warrior. "Why I never, a human I just met sticking his hand in my chest?" Both Inyasha's and Jin's eyes widen in shock, that's impossible thinks Jin, how can she still be alive? Thinks Inuyasha. Yura tosses Jin aside before bending down to retrive the jewel shard, "plus there is the fact that you tried to steal my shard. I am very cross with both of you." Inuyasha stares intently at his opponent her weak spot, where the hell is it? Yura snickers as she prepares to launch another attack, but her attention is drawn back to her lair, to see Kagome climbing up the pillar of hair. Yura scowls angrily as the draws the strings connected to her left hand, causing the column to shift and almost cause Kagome to fall off. Inuyasha then uses this distraciton to grab Yura's sword and raises it up over his head. "You shouldn't have looked away." And with a powerful swing he cuts the woman diagonally across her shoulder. As the bisected demon begins to fall apart, hair comes form nowhere and stiches her back together again. Yura, with fury ablaze in her eyes turns around to face the half demon, "all right, that does it!" With a wave of her hand Yura strings Inuyasha up again, and the turns to Jin to prepare to do the same to him, when Inuyasha draws her attention back to him with a snicker. "When I took your hand it was only like you broke a nail. But now you seem mad for real, what're you hiding that your so worried about." Yura growls at the Hanyo, and as she prepares to attack again Kagome grabs everyones attention. "Guys, that red skull up there. Concentrate on that." Inuyasha and Jin both stare in the direciton Kagome is pointing, but Inuyasha just scowls in confusion, "what red skull?" Jin double takes at his half demon comrade, "what do you mean "what red skull?" its right there plain as day." Yura's eyes shift nerviously between the human girl and the neo-demon boy, they can both see it now? Yura then shoots off towards Kagome, seeing as she was closer to her prized possetion. Inuyasha snaps himself free from his bonds "oh, no you don't." Inuyasha and Jin both rush forward to help Kagome. Yura pulls a large batch of hair nearly forcing Kagome to let go, "stop pulling my hair! Your getting it tangled!" Yura then chucks her sword at Kagome, it strikes her arm forcing the girl of the future to let go, and tumble through the air. Yura then strings Kagome up and to her surpise, in spite of the sword attack Kagome appears perfectly fine. "What are you? Why don't you breath?" She's right, why wasn't my arm cut off? She then remembers what Inuyasha said about his cloak. But her thoughts are cut short as she realises that Yura is mere inches from her face. "Even from here you look pretty mortal to me. Let us put you to the test." With a wave of her hand Yura causes a strand of hand to wrap tightly around Kagome's neck, suffocating her. Yura would have succedded too if Inuyasha didn't press the attack, "BLADES OF BLOOD," the barely concious Kagome looks up, "Inu-yasha". "Don't you faint on me you stupid girl!" Jin then leaps up and uses his claws to just through Kagome's bonds and catches her on their way down. Inuyasha the lands next to the two, "hey, could have done that." Jin raises and eyebrow, at the demon boy, "the why didn't you?" "Inuyasha, Jin look out!" yells Kagome as Yura's sword comes flying in stabbing the dog boy in the right shoulder. The two fighters turn around and see Yura standing atop a pile of skulls, "you all seemed to have forgotten, I'm immortal!" Jin scowls angrily at the demon woman, "that was a low blow witch!" The mouth piece on Jin's mask then twists into a very demoic looking mouth, and with a cry of "_Hojustu Onibi_!" he shoots a long purple string of flame at the demon woman driving her back, "even flames cannot stop me!" boasts Yura but then there is a bizzar tapping sound this sound causes Yura to freeze in her tracks. Everyone looks over and sees Kagome stabbing the red skull over and over again with one of her arrows. "It's here, this red skull, the hairs are connected to her hand." Yura immediately begins to freak out, "stop that, I'll kill you!" Yura then throws her sword at Kagome but it doesn't come close as Jin intercepts the blade by catching it in his hand. "Kagome now!" Kagome nods and then draws back her hand, and with one last blow spits the skull into several pieces, revieling a tiny object inside that immediately gets split in two from the arrows blow. Yura siezes up and then simply disitigrates leaving nothing but her clothes.

Kagome picks up half of the object that was hidden in the skull, a simple red comb. Inuyasha staggers up to Kagome and Jin, "so that's what Yura really was." Jin cocks his head in confusion, "Yura was a comb?" Inuyasha looks over at the armored warrior, "after everything you've seen and done here are you surpised? It probably got its power from combing the hair of the dead." Kagome then walks up to Inuyasha to try and inspect his injuries, "Inuyasha, the stab wounds on your chest, you only got them because I have your kimono." Inuyasha scoffs, "it's no big deal, anyway what happened to the jewel." Jin then walks up to Yura's remains and picks up the pouch with the shard inside. "It's right here dog boy." Inuyasha then stands up and rushes up to Jin, "oh, no you don't your scent now screams demon I wouldn't trust you to even look at one of the jewel shards." Jin growls angrily, "look here dog boy," before Jin can finish his rebuttle the purple flames that catalized his transformation surround him again, and with a loud woosh standing in the demons place once again is the bespecticaled music loving Gaijin boy. "Aw, man I just getting used to that." Kagome then walks up to her friend. "Well at least your back to normal now. What do you think made this happen?" "I'm not sure," says Jin as he fingers the tuneing fork on his necklace, "but I've got a pretty good idea." "Jin, Kagome, lets go." Both members of the future population then look over to the half demon boy and stare at him, Inuyasha quickly becomes irate, "what?" Kagome then blinks, "nothing it's you've never called us by our names before." Jin then gets a goofy grin on his face, "aw, don't you see Kagome, he's finnally warming up to us." Inuyasha then scoffs again, "yeah well don't get used to it, only one of you has gotten less useless." Kagome then slaps the demon boy on the back, "well next time remind me not to save you." Inuyasha then frozen stiff by pain then topples to the ground like a tree gnawed clean through by a beaver. Kagome then fumes at the demon boy, "if it hurts so much why didn't you say something." "Aw, leave alone will ya." Meanwhile a great distance away from the battlefield Kaede, waits in her hidding place, "Inuyasha, only by working together will ye succeed. Also don't forget where ye buried me." Kaede then sneezes sending several leaves flying to the air. Meanwhile a distance away a young man sits in an old temple, meditateing around his neck is a necklace similar to Jin's but instead of a tuneing fork there is a small flute, he then breaks out of his trance, and scowls, "he has shown himself at last. So now I must wait until the time is right. And then the wind and the flame can once again clash."

Well now its happened, Jin has finnaly transformed into his alter ego. How will this effect his relationship with the other jewel hunters. Stay tuned to find out.

Next time: episode 5, Aristocratic Assassin Sesshomaru, and the secret of the sound.


	6. Aristocratic Assasin Sesshomaru

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound.

A Jin Shirinue fanfic

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

denotes thoughts, () denotes english phrases

The time, a few days after the battle with Yura, as noted by the full moon hanging proudly in the sky, the place: a distant field. There in the middle of the field is man wearing a flowing white robe under a plate of black body armor, a yellow sash around his waste tying a long katana to his side. The mans pale face looks up into the night sky, his long silver hair flowing behind him in the nocturnal breeze. On his check are pale purple markings akin to claw scratches, on his forehead is a black crescent moon. His yellow eyes gaze into the sky, but unlike a certain half demon we all know and maybe a few of us love, these eyes are cold, calculating, and completely void of emotion. The man shifts his gaze then shifts to a funeral shrine in the field before him.

Over the hill comes a small demon, a strange frog like being with large yellow eyes, wearing a brown shirt and grey pants, on top of his green head a small black hat. Clutched in spindly little hands is staff more than twice as long as the demon is tall. The top of the gnarled wooden pole has been painstakingly carved to resemble two human faces. One face is like that of a young woman with parts of the staff painted to resemble long black hair. While the other is like the twisted visage of grizzly old man complete with a long white beard. The green creature calls out excitedly to the tall man "M'lord, it is here. The tomb we have been searching for." The tall man glairs at the knee high being, "are you sure?" he asks in a voice that easily lowered the temperature of the air by several degrees.

The vertically challenged demon nods his head eagerly. "Aye M'lord! The staff has always led us without fail. Clearly this _must _be the tomb." The frog demon rushes forward the tall staff in his hands. "Allow me to prove it to you M'lord." As the short creature draws closer to the tomb, several forms leap out of the shadows the two demons then find themselves surrounded by a large group of vicious snarling wolves. The tiny imp's eyes grow wider in surprise, (A.N: I honestly thought it was impossible for Jaken's eyes to _get_ any wider.) the frog mumbles to himself, "this, this isn't right at all." But he then turns to his master and in a more audible tone speaks to the emotionally void man. "Success M'lord! This proves my suspicions." The demon man glances passively at the wolves surrounding him and in the cold yet amazingly poetic manner he "speaks" to the wolves.

"The fang, it is the fang I seek. Once I posses it, I shall transform myself into a far greater being." The wolves step closer, "and yet why must I explain this? My power **is** what it **is**. I shall not always be limited as thus. Can I truly be afraid? Or is it I know not my own limits. Or perhaps I presume to much." The tall man raises his right arm; it then begins to glow with a sickly green light. The wolves leap forwards, with full intent to rip the intruders to shreds. But this is not to be, the man waves his arm, a whip of pure energy forming on the ends of his finger tips, the wolves are ripped apart in mid-air, the gore that was once their bodies landing on the ground with a wet and sickening smack.

"The fang, it is the fang I seek." The man then glances towards his servant, "position the staff Jaken." Jaken leaps at his masters command and rushes towards the tomb. "Right away M'lord!" Jaken then places the base of the staff on top of the tomb and hold the wooden rod straight. After a few seconds the eyes on the woman's open followed by her mouth, then the staff lets loose an ear shattering, blood curdling scream that echoes across the countryside. Jaken blinks in confusion, "it is the maiden who responds this time. Do not tell me we have been mislead!" Jaken then turns to his master, and jumps in surprise to see the man walking away. "Ah! Wait for me M'lord!"

A distance away the few wolves that survived the mans cruelty run as fast as their four legs can carry them. And deep within the fur of one of these beasts, sits a very, very tiny figure. The being is clearly advanced in years, as denoted by the tufts of white hair that grow from the sides of its hair. The near microscopic man is clothed in a green outfit and carries an equally tiny bag on his back. But what makes this man unusual is instead of a mouth is sharp pointy proboscis a kin to those of mosquitoes, or possibly fleas. The miniscule man looks back at where the wild dog he is currently running from and speaks to himself. "And here I though I had seen it all. Whoever this guy lord Inuyasha would want to know, I must find him quickly!"

Chapter 5: Aristocratic assassin Sesshomaru.

A distance away from the tomb, a large happenings is going on. Around a large bond fire sit a group of rouge samurai, their leader a burly man with a short scraggily beard call out to his comrades. "We rejoin the main force come the dawn!" He calls out hefting a large wild boar off of his shoulders. "But tonight let us feast upon this boar, so we may have strength for battle." The mans many troops begin to cheer, "Yes, and let us give thanks that we have a mighty leader to follow." "Lead us to victory commander!" The leader laughs heartily at his men's support. "That I will and more besides." Suddenly the celebration is permeated with yelps of pain as from the outskirts of the group comes the same tall demon man from the tomb.

The demon man scowls in disgust at the rabble before him, the leader of the men stand up eyes ablaze with fury at the intruder. "Are ye mad?" The demon man simply turns to the lead warrior, "I need a boat." The man's eyes widen in confusion, and after a moment he begins to guffaw at the impertinence of the stranger before him. "buwa, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Before a great battle, and we're to just give to you are we?" The demon's scowl deepens, "yes, you are and now." The samurai's laughter stops abruptly, and the then growls angrily at the demon. "I think not, you disrespectful whelp!" The demon man rushes forward and grabs the samurai by the throat, and with a deft twist and a loud crack, the samurai's body becomes limp, and with the ease of a linebacker tossing a football the demon man throws the lifeless samurai into one of the boats tied to the small dock nearby, causing it to shatter into dozens of pieces.

Then from the tall grass the shot vassal Jaken shoves his way through the greenery. "Lord Sesshomaru, I regret to inform you that there are no boats near," Jaken's train of thought is derailed as he sees the boats gently bobbing in the river before him. Jaken sweatdrops at his apparent incompetence, "unless you count those boats over there." If the rouge samurai weren't surprised by Sesshomaru's appearance they most likely were by Jaken's. "What is that?" "They clearly aren't human." "They must be beasts." "Let's get them!" Without taking his eyes off of the rabble before him Sesshomaru speaks to his servant, "Jaken, I leave them to you." Jaken snickers sinisterly at his masters command. As the solders leap forward to strike the two demons down Jaken drives the base of the staff into the ground, then the mouth of the old man face opens, and spews forth a vicious gout of flame that quickly consumes the men. "He, he, he, feel the wrath of the Staff of Two Heads." After a few seconds of exposure to the flame, the entire battalion is incinerated, leaving little more that a large scorch mark on the ground.

"These foolish mortals might have been spared. Yet such is the arrogance of these _lofty_ samurai. And each time we encounter these buffoons lord Sesshomaru must teach them their place." Jaken proclaims proudly, "oh Lord Sesshomaru I have as you've asked." Suddenly the staff leaps out of Jaken's hands and spins around until the eyes of the old man face the east and begin to glow with an eerie red light. Jaken gasps in surprise, "what is this? The staff has changed position. This can only mean that the fang has changed location." A little while later the two demons are gently drifting down the river in one of the boats that belonged to the now deceased samurai. "Um, Lord Sesshomaru?" Sesshomaru, answers the frog whilst keeping his eyes on the river before them, "yes, Jaken?" Jaken gulps nervously before asking a question. "Mighten't we ask, uh, Lord Inuyasha where the tomb might be hidden." Sesshomaru's frown deepens at the mention of the name, and with a quick movement swats Jaken out of the canoe. Then the demon lord proceeds to use his vassal's staff to drown the little demon. "I'd prefer not to think of _him_." "Forgive me m'lord!" sputters the drowning midget. "As far as we're concerned he's dead to us. Besides wasn't he sealed to a tree fifty years ago?" Jaken while fighting off drowning continues to answer his lord's questions. 'But sire! They say that the spell was removed only recently." Sesshomaru's eyes widen am imperceptible amount as Jaken continues to sputter, "besides M'lord the staff has been acting strange, it is because of Inuyasha I'm sure of it! And speaking of the staff M'lord mightn't you remove it, I can't breath!" Then with a final gurgling noise Jaken begins to sink into the river.

The following morning our attention changes towards a familiar well, a hand reaches out of the top, then Jin, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a blue shirt, with his trademark grey jacket, headphones and necklace, claws his way out into the morning sun. he looks back down into the well and calls down it. "Okay hand it up." After a large amount of grunting in effort a pink bicycle emerges from the well Jin lugs it out and places it next to a large tree, he then returns to the well and leans inwards extending his arm as far as possible, and then lugs up Kagome, who on this day is wearing a blue sweater, with a long blue skirt, whilst hefting a red backpack. The girl then wipes the sweat off of her brow, "whew, made it." Kagome then walks over to and mounts her bicycle, then she turns to her friend. "Are you sure you don't need a ride?" Jin smiles his trademark gentle smile before pulling his necklace off and clutching the tuning fork. "Don't worry about me, I've been wanting to see how fast I can run anyway." He then taps his fork against the well, causing it to release the powerful multipurpose sound waves, before holding it up to his forehead causing a symbol to emerge from his flesh. Jin smirks in a confident manner before saying, "Henshin" one blaze of purple flame later Jin stands before Kagome, in his demonized state. Following a nod from her transformed friend they both take off on their preferred modes of transportation, Kagome on her bike, Jin with his own two legs.

On the way to the village Kagome begins to think about all the goings on, over the past few days. How is that Jin and I have managed to end up in some weird, feudal, alternative version of Japan any way? With the old priestess Kaede and the other villagers watching out for us we've been doing okay, and from what Jin has told me Kaede and Inuyasha have been helping him to gain an understanding of his demonic powers, though I don't dare think about that other kinds of monsters might come after us. As for Inuyasha himself he's rude, he's crude, and he says he hates us, but I guess since he's helping Jin understand his new self, he can't be all bad and besides if we can find the jewel that's all that matters right? Meanwhile, in the grass just ahead of the two friends, a very tiny figure jumps along the dirt path, it is none other than the very tiny demon who awhile ago was clinging to the fur of a wolf. The tiny stops and take a breather, "three days, I've been traveling nonstop. Gah, I need a rest." From a small distance behind him, the tiny man hears a strange sound. "That sound, what could make a sound like, GHYA!" Why was he screaming in surprise you ask? Because the next thing he sees was the giant, relatively speaking, front wheel of Kagome's bike, and with a quiet squish the man is run over. Kagome looks at her front wheel in confusion at the very minor bump in the road. "Hey, Kagome what's up?" Kagome looks over at her fellow traveler from beyond the well, "I thought I ran over something there, but I must've imagined it."

A while later the two have finally arrived at Kaede's village, and are attending to what they think is an important manner, marked by the incredulous voice of a certain half demon. "First aid treatment? I don't need it leave me alone both of you." Kagome huffs at the stubborn hanyo. "Yes you do we were there remember?" "I have to agree with her on this one dog breath, if any one needs medical attention it's you. So come down from you high horse, er, branch and take it like a man." Inuyasha looks down at the two scoffs at them and returns to his nap, "Nothin' doin' you two." But Kagome already formulated a solution with a simple, "sit boy." Inuyasha falls out of his tree like a lead weight, and lands with the grace of one, Jin winces at the action and then mutters under his breath, (well if he wasn't in pain before he is now.) Inuyasha pries his face off of the ground, and the yells at Kagome, "what the hell was that for you crazy woman!" Kagome kneels down next to Inuyasha, "I just need to take a look okay, when your hurt as badly as you were you **need** to have medical treatment." "She's right you know Kami-sama only what possible infection you might have gotten from injuries." Inuyasha just growls at the two teens, "I _said_ go way, good grief, you two are acting like _I'm_ the one who lost." Kagome's voice then takes on a dangerous tone, "so you aren't going to _let_ me a look?" "Not on your life." "So be it, oh Jin." At Kagome's call her friend's right hand shoots up in a crisp salute, milliseconds before leaping at Inuyasha in a violent tackle.

On top of a near by hill the elderly priestess Kaede, with her left arm in a sling, entertains some of the little children of the village. "So are you feeling better Lady Kaede?" Kaede smiles at the little boy, "Ay child, I should say that I am almost all better." Then a girl wearing a brown kimono takes her turn in asking a question. "Are you gonna' find all the jewel pieces soon?" Kaede merely chuckles at the young ones energetic nature, "not _soon_ perhaps but aye. It would make things much easer if Inuyasha, could try to like Jin and young Kagome better." The little girl then points to the left of the path, "but they already like one another." The group looks down at the base of the hill and is witness to a most peculiar sight. Jin is behind Inuyasha trying to retrain the demon boy's arms, while Kagome is using all of her power to try and pry the hanyo's shirt off, "I said take it off!" she screams. "And _I_ said no!" yells Inuyasha, "oh, stop whining and take a man, you wimp." No prize in guessing who probably said that. Kaede misconstruing the scene imposes herself in-front of the children. "Avert ye, eyes!"

Kaede walks down towards the wrestling trio and clears her throat to catch the attention of the jewel seekers. "Mayhaps ye like each other more than I first thought." All three blush in embarrassment. "Get offa' me you crazy woman, and you let go." Inuyasha springs up into a standing position knocking Kagome to her butt, while throwing Jin down on his back. "I thought you woulda' both figured it out that _my_ bodies a little bit different." Says Inuyasha, as he pulls open his shirt revealing, perfect unmarred skin, Kagome's eyes widen in confusion, "it's already gone?" Jin's eyes widen in fascination, "amazing the sword went clean through your shoulder, but there's no evidence of that happening, not even a scar! I know of guys who would have a field day studying _your_ anatomy dog boy!" Kagome passively observes the interaction between the two men, Inuyasha's definitely not all human, but he's not all demon either, can someone be half? and what about Jin is he half like Inuyasha, or something else entirely different altogether?

Inuyasha then winces in pain and opens his shirt to reveal a tiny creature latched on to his chest. The creature then looks up revealing the tiny man, "greeting and salutations." Inuyasha then responds, as anyone would in this situation, by slapping the tiny blood sucker. The little creature now flat as a piece of paper the drifts down into Inuyasha's open hand. "Well, well, if it ain't Myoga the flea. What're you doing here." Using his appropriately sized walking stick for support Myoga stands back up and then speaks to Inuyasha. "Lord Inuyasha I have come to warn you." Later that evening as the sun begins to set, the jewel hunters sit with Kaede to listen to Myoga's warning, while Kagome's bike sits outside, drawing the attention of some of the more curious children of the village. "What you mean someone's tryin' t' find my old man's tomb!" The four people, and single insect, sit around a small fire as Myoga tells his tale, "as guardian of his final resting place I could stand it no longer." Inuyasha scoffs at the tiny man, "so you took off and came here instead." Myoga coughs into his tiny hand, "well that is not important, it's the urn that's important. And that's no longer there."

Inuyasha's eyes widen a little at this revelation. "Really, so where did it move to?" The flea demon shrugs his tiny shoulders, "unfortunately sire, no one really knows." Inuyasha frowns at the nigh-microscopic demon. "Huh, some guardian you turned out to be." "Inuyasha!" Chastises Kaede, while Myoga continues his little story, "those who have seen him say that your father was a phantom beast. They also say that the western lands were his domain." Inuyasha takes this all in stride, "can't say I really remember him." "Your father was a demon among demons, great and powerful. His blood was especially delicious, and you lord Inuyasha have obviously inherited that from him." Jin can't help but sweatdrop at this comment, he then leans over to Kagome and whispers in her ear. "Only a blood sucker could make that compliment and mean it." Kagome refrains from giggling at her friends comment and then directs a question at the little flea demon, "that's, um, very interesting Myoga, but what about his mom?" Myoga's eyes close in reverence, "ah yes, _she_ was a beauty beyond compare. A true wonder," but Myoga's speech is cut short as he finds himself trampled under Inuyasha's foot. "Hey, that wasn't very nice." Says Kagome, "yeah what's _your_ problem dog boy." Inuyasha simply begins walking out of the hut, and without even turning to face them says, "Just drop it; the less said about _her_ the better." And with that Inuyasha steps outside into the twilight.

There is a brief silence inside the hut interrupted by the sound of objects moving as Jin digs through the first aid kit and produces a pair of tweezers, which he then uses to pry the flea demon off of the ground and then gently set Myoga into his hand. "Sorry about that Myoga, did I say something to make him upset?" Kagome asks, once Myoga recovers he first bows to Jin, "thank you young man, and as for your question young lady, Lord Inuyasha has always preferred not to speak of his mother." With a worried look in her eyes Kagome stands up and then proceeds to follow the irate hanyo. As the full moon begins to rise in the sky we find Inuyasha sitting atop the branch of a tall tree, with Kagome looking up at him. His father was a full demon, but Inuyasha is only half. So if one half is one thing doe that mean the other is human? Kagome then remembers what Yura said about Inuyasha during their battle. So that's what Yura meant. Half-demon but half-human too, that must mean his mom was human to. Kagome just stares up at Inuyasha, then contemplating what he said earlier about his mother. "Is that why we won't talk about her? His mom's human so he hates her?" It's then that someone quietly walks up behind Kagome and says to her, "I highly doubt that, no child can truly hate their mother." Kagome whirls around in surprise to see Jin standing behind her. "I suppose that true." She then remembers earlier that day when she and Jin were first taking off, and the conversation she had with her mom.

"I going now bye." "Kagome wait a minute." Kagome turns around as she opens the door, "I can't mom, Jin's waiting for me and we've gotta' go." Mrs. Higurashi smiles while holding out the first aid kit, "take this with you, I know you already have a lot to carry, but since you have a strong young man helping you," "Mom, I've already asked Jin to carry a ton of stuff, and I've got to much already." "Use it for that friend of yours, the one with the cute ears. Didn't you say he got hurt in the shoulder?" Kagome smiles, "oh yeah, thanks." The flash back ends, as Kagome looks back at Jin, "your right he can't really hate her, and besides I bet she loved him very much." Jin nods sagely with his usual gentle smile on his face. Then the wind begins to blow eerily as Jin's tuning fork, recently dubbed the Henshin Onsa OnKaku, begins to vibrate slightly causing Jin to begin to look around, a suspicious look on his face. Suddenly Inuyasha jumps down from his perch and with a cry of, "get down!" pushes both teens face first into the soil. Kagome is the first to pry her face out of the dirt, "Inuyasha!" Jin then takes his turn to spit out a mouthful of grass, "what's the big idea?" "Quiet you two, something's coming can't you sense it?"

They all look up at the night sky, and there flying across the moon is a carriage. "What's that doing up there?" Asks Jin, as all three adventurers stare intently at the flying yet horseless buggy. Then a pair of short demons flies up to the rear of the cart and open the cloth flap obscuring the rider, revealing a beautiful woman with long black hair and sad black eyes, wearing a pink kimono, her arms bound with chains. In spite of the great distance the three are from the cart they are able to make out this person, just barely in Jin's case. "There's a lady riding inside it." Inuyasha then stands up a surprised and confused look on his face. "Hey you okay dog breath?" Inuyasha stares at the woman until finally one word escapes his lips, so faint that even Jin with his sharper than average hearing has trouble hearing it over the combined noise of the whistling wind and his lightly vibrating Onsa OnKaku, "mother." Both Jin's and Kagome's eyes widen in shock, "MOTHER?" they both shout.

Up in the carriage the woman looks down at the three jewel seekers, "Is that you Inuyasha?" The chains around her body then tighten making her then cry out in pain. Inuyasha then begins to rush forward, "mother!" only to be held back by Jin and Kagome, "wake up dog breath this isn't physically possible." "Jin's right your mother's dead, you told us that yourself." Before any of the heroes can do anything a colossal hand emerges from the clouds above, encircles the carriage, and easily crushes it. The hand leads to a just a colossal arm, then to a shoulder, and then to a monstrous oni easily taller than some buildings back in modern Japan. In the demon's hand lies Inuyasha's mom, clearly unconscious. "He's gonna' hurt your mom!" Yells Kagome, seconds before Inuyasha charges into battle, "not on my watch." Inuyasha's soon to be gallant rescue is then intercepted by a long lick of flame, and there on the colossus' forearm stand Jaken his staff at the ready, snickering evilly. Suddenly a cold voice calls out to the toad man, "Jaken." Jaken whirls around to face his master, "yes, m'lord." "Once were through I want him dead." Jaken gulps nervously at his master's command, "as you wish m'lord!" Inuyasha stares at Sesshomaru, and Sesshomaru returns the favor, "so it is you **Shesshomaru!**" Sesshomaru stares impassively at Inuyasha, "it has been a long time, _little _brother."

The silence caused by the shock is deafening, even the Onsa OnKaku stops vibrating. Jin slowly turns to Kagome, "did he just say brother?" Kagome then slowly turns to Jin "that must mean he's," Sesshomaru's gaze shifts towards the two humans, "mortals how interesting." Kagome yells up at Sesshomaru, after hiding behind her two "bodyguards". "Yeah what of it you creep." Sesshomaru gazes listlessly at the two humans, "most others would be ashamed, but with _you_ little brother, the girl suits you just fine, and as for the boy, I suppose you need someone of your intelligence to communicate with." The chains around Inuyasha's mothers neck tighten, beginning to strangle her, "these "human" creatures" spitting out the word human as if it was the foulest language imaginable, "I would think you'd have enough of them, or is this a taste from father?" Inuyasha snarls at his brother, while Kagome ponders Sesshomaru's words, that must mean his mom _is_ human! Inuyasha balls his hands into fists and yells at Sesshomaru. "That can't be all. You wouldn't have come all this way just to say that." Sesshomaru nods curtly before answering Inuyasha, "indeed not, I do not have such time at my disposal. I seek the tomb of our father. Where my I find it?" Inuyasha growls, "our fathers tomb? Why you asking me?" Sesshomaru crosses his arms, all the while maintaining the cold and listless look on his face, "seeing yet never seen. Protected yet never known to its protector. This is all I know of our father's final resting place." Inuyasha scowls at his brother, "well I've got no idea what your talkin' about. And even if I did, there's no way I'd tell you."

Sesshomaru is unshaken by his brother's bravado. "I see then you leave me no choice. I must let your mothers suffering continue." With a crack of his energy whip, and a groan of pain from his giant minion, the ogre then tightens his hand around Inuyasha's mom forcing her to cry out in pain. Both Jin and Kagome's eyes widen in worry for the woman's wellbeing. But Inuyasha plasters his trademark mask of indifference and bravado on his face. "Nice try jerk. We both know that she's been dead for years. There's no way that I'd fall for a stupid trick like this." Now it's Jaken's turn to smirk, "ah, but you're the one who's stupid. Recalling spirits from the netherworld is a simple task, _if_ you are as powerful as lord Sesshomaru. He was even kind enough to give her flesh, and yet her own son denies her own existence. How sad to be the mother of one such as you." Inuyasha's eyes widen in confusion then maybe it is true. Inuyasha's mother looks weakly over at the half demon, "I _have_ come back Inuyasha. Back from the land of the dead." The tiny demon minions tighten the chains around Inuyasha's mother causing her to pass into unconsciousness. It is that moment than Inuyasha finally snaps. "STOP HURTING HER!" He lunges forward and bears his claws in his signature move, "IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!!" The ogre minion howls in pain as he finds himself spontaneously a righty. Inyasha's mom plummets to the ground and lands with a thud and a clink, (A.N: remember folks she's still in chains). Kagome runs up to the woman's side, "oh no, are you okay?" Inuyasha turns around and calls to his human "friends". "Kagome, Jin get her out of here." Jin puts an encouraging hand on Kagome's shoulder and rushes up to Inuyasha's right. "You're not the only one with power anymore buddy."

Jin pulls the Onsa OnKaku off of his neck, and begins to trigger his transformation. He taps the OnKaku on the watch releasing the powerful sound waves, and every demon in the immediate area begins to react, Inuyasha clams his hands over his ears, Jaken being the wuss that he is begins to writhe in pain almost dropping his staff, the ogre howls in pain at the sound, while Sesshomaru's eyes simply widen a smidge. Jin looks up at Sesshomaru and sighs in disappointment. "Oh, come on Mr. High-and-mighty, this has gotta' be buggin' you. Come on give me a flinch, a wince, at least blink for goodness sake." Inuyasha elbows Jin in the side, "mind finishing before I go deaf." Jin nods rapidly, "right, right sorry." Jin then holds his OnKaku to his forehead causing the his oni crest to appear, and following the command, "**henshin**" Jin is transformed into his demonic state. Sesshomaru's scowl deepens a little, "enough!" Sesshomaru whips his giant minion into action, the Daikaiju's remaining hand rushes forward to grab the two women, "Kagome." "Mother!" both demon boys rush forward to protect the women, Inuyasha slams directly into the arm, while Jin stands in-front of the women his arm spread in a protective manner. Suddenly Inuyasha's mother produces a pure white lotus from the folds of her Kimono, the lotus begins to glow with a ghostly aura, that grows brighter and brighter, until it is blinding to all around. Then when the aura fades, the youths of the future, the hanyo, and his mother have all vanished. Jaken begins to cackle evilly, "you see milord all goes according to plan." Sesshomaru glances at his vassal, "this plan of your is beneath me. I warn you now Jakken, if this fails, _you will die_."

We region our heroes in a new location, a beautiful peaceful garden, surrounding a large crystal blue lake. Of the three jewel seekers Inuyasha is the first to regain consciousness, he looks around, taking in the new surroundings with a confused look on his face. "This place, where is it?" It is then that another being makes their presence known, "at the border of the spirit world." Inuyasha's head whips around to face his mother. "I must be crossing over it very soon." "Oh, yeah it happened so long ago I almost forgot that you were dead." The two stand there in an awkward silence. "Inuyasha you've become a man now haven't you?" Inuyasha looks himself over, "well, yeah. I mean when you died I was still just a kid." Inuyasha's mothers eyes drop in sorrow, "such horribly violent days, and you were all alone. With no one to care for you, could you ever forgive me?" Inuyasha shrugs his shoulders, "hey it's no big deal." It's at this moment that Kagome manages to regain consciousness, Inuyasha's mom she's okay! Kagome then tries to stand up, but to her horror she finds out she can't. I can't move I'm paralyzed. As her vision continues to clear a horrible reality comes to light, in the water before the two conservationists their reflections are clearly visible, her face, it has no reflection! She then tries to call out to Inuyasha to warn him, Inuyasha, Inuyasha! My voice I can't speak, and I think Jin's still out of it. Inuyasha please snap out of it. She has no face!

Next time: Tetsaiga, The Phantom Sword, and Jin's new weapons.


	7. Tetsusaiga The Phantom Sword

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound.

A Jin Shirinue fanfic

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

denotes thoughts, () denotes English

Chapter 6: Tetsusaiga The Phantom Sword

Many miles away from our heroes location a great effort is in progress. The men of Lady Kaede's village are all carrying torches and searching through the dark night. "Lady Kagome, Lord Jin!" they call again and again, in the effort to find the one sometimes demon and the reincarnated priestess. Eventually something catches the eyes of a pair of searches, "Oh, no. over here quickly." The Posse gathers around the find, the light of their fires clearly illuminating the object, Kagome's bike abandoned.

Meanwhile many more miles away, god only knows how to measure distances dimensionally. There is something going on at the Higurashi shrine, Kagome's mom is busy with a second bike, this one blue in color, when a very tired looking Sota stumbles out of the house, his eyes heavy with fatigue. "Mom? What are you doing out here?" Mrs. Higurashi looks up at her son, "Oh, I'm sorry dear, did I wake you up? I'm lowering the bike seat for you sister. She left her bike over there, but now she can use mine. But first I needed to lower the seat so she doesn't fall off." Sota nods his head in understanding, "she and Jin are gonna' be gone a couple of days this time. They both had a lotta clothes." Mrs. Higurashi smiles at her son, "that's right, but if she has a bike ready for her at home she'll have one less thing to worry about." "She sure is lucky to have you to worry about her. I sure am glad that _I_ don't make you worry like that." Mrs. Higurashi turns to Sota, "oh, but you do make me worry. How can I help it? I am your mom. You do still wet the bed after all and," she's cut off by a very nervous looking Sota, "whoa, whoa, whoa, mom I don't do that. I'm in third grade remember?" Mrs. Higurashi giggles at her sons antics, while smiling brightly. "All I really want is for you two to be happy, and hopefully Jin to." "I know mom, but Jin surprises me a little." Mrs. Higurashi sighs wistfully, "well his is technically your sisters first boyfriend, and he is such a nice boy, it's almost like he already is a member of our family." Sota nods, and then looks up at the night sky, "mom a shooting star, make a wish." Kagome's mom clasps her hands in prayer, "I wish that me and my family can be happy," she says as the tiny light shoots across the sky, "oh and to win the lottery." She ads in afterthought.

Back in the alternate dimension, Inuyasha continues to speak to talk to his "mom" while Kagome continues to warn him silently. Inuyasha, snap out of it! She doesn't even have a face, whoever or _what_ever she is, she's not your mom. All the while Jin remains unconscious blissfully unaware on what is happening to his two friends. "Inuyasha, I must return to the netherworld now." Inuyasha's face takes on a clear expression of disappointment, "do you have to?" Inuyasha's mom smiles sadly, and produces a pink lotus pod from the folds of her kimono, before dropping it into the lake, breaking it apart and causing the petals to spread across the water. "Look at the petals Inuyasha." Within the rippling water a image forms, a little boy with long silver hair runs across a bridge, chasing a ball. The boy then reaches the island on the other side of the bridge. There on the island sits a beautiful woman wearing a flowing pink kimono. Inuyasha's eyes widen, that's me from way back when I was small. The chibi Inuyasha runs into the woman's waiting arms. Inuyasha's mother begins to speak again, "you remember don't you? You remember how I held you as a child, just like I'm holding you now. And I'll never let go." Then things start to get freaky, as Inuyasha's mother hugs him her hand begin to literally sink into his back. Kagome now begins to really worry for Inuyasha, I have to do something, but I'm still stuck. Why can't I move?

Her question is answered as the illusion begins to fade, it is revealed she was bound in chains by several of Sesshomaru's frog-like servants. The beauty of the garden then begins to fade away revealing a twisted swamp with the skeleton of a large ox sinking into the mud. Kagome's eyes, being the only part of her body she can still move willingly, widen It's all fake, this place, his mom, all of it! It is then that a familiar tiny voice begins to whisper in Kagome's ear. "Kagome, snap out of it! It's me Myoga the flea." Myoga glances around nervously, "oh dear, who would have thought that Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's older brother, would be the one seeking the tomb? And what a fearsome foe _he _is. And here's Kagome the poor thing, chained up from head to toe. I'll bet she probably couldn't even swat a," Myoga's thought is cut short as he stares at Kagome's vulnerable neck, the fleas eyes narrow lustfully and he, figuratively, licked his lips, "mm, blood." The tiny demon latches on to Kagome's neck and begins to feed, when suddenly with a definite smack Kagome's hand whips through the air and squishes the flea demon. Kagome sits up shaking off the chains and scaring away the little toad demons. She looks at the flattened flea in her hand, "what do you know, I'm not as paralyzed as I thought." Myoga groans in pain, "that's fan-tas-tic news." The girl then crawls over to her musical friend, who had long since returned to his human form, and tries to shake him awake. "Jin, Jin, wake up!" Jin shifts in his sleep and mumbles, (I don't wanna go to school mommy.) Kagome then starts shaking Jin harder. "Wake up!" Jin then gingerly begins to exit the dream world and renter the real one. "Huh? What? Who? Oh, Kagome," he yawns, "what happened?" She then grabs Jin by the shoulder, "no time, Inuyasha's in trouble." Jin becomes wide awake at that announcement. "Well what are we waiting for let's go."

From the darkness of the fog, another familiar shape emerges within a small boat. Jaken glides into the swamp silently, and takes in the scene before him. The faceless demon has begun to absorb Inuyasha into her body with musings about her "precious" boy. "Stop what are you doing?" Yells Jaken before swatting the faceless demon with his staff, "no soul sucking until I tell you. You can have your way with him _after_ he tells us how to find the tomb." From the near reeds Kagome and Jin quietly spy on the situation, Jin then turns to the tiny demon sitting on his shoulder, "I remember seeing that little toad with that Sesshomaru guy, he works for him right?" Myoga nods his head, "yes that is Jaken, Sesshomaru's henchman. Keep you eyes on his staff it has impressive power." Both teens nod in understanding. While this little conversation happened, Inuyasha sinks deeper into the soul suckers flesh, "Inuyasha, where is your father's tomb? Please tell me." In an otherworldly daze Inuyasha simply mutters sleepily, "I don't know." "Then think harder my dear. I must know." Deep within the recesses of Inuyasha's mind an image forms, a black pearl. Inuyasha still in his daze mutters something, "the black pearl on the right." Jaken scowls at this information, "what "black pearl"? We need more information than that, dig deeper." The demon-spirit looks at the little toad with worry in her "eyes." "But lord Jaken, if I delve deeper his spirit will be broken." Jaken angrily swings his staff around, "I don't care, just do it." The faceless demon looks deeper into Inuyasha's mind, in his subconscious Inuyasha experiences being held under water, his mental self looks up at the surface and sees that his mother has no face, shocked beyond words Inuyasha struggles to free himself, but the demons grip on his mind is to strong.

Meanwhile in the waking world Jaken's patience has quickly worn out. "What is taking so long? Get a move on before Lord Sesshomaru comes back and," Jaken's tirade gets cut short as Kagome stomps on him, then with a loud crack, sends the little toad flying into the swamp water with a swing of his staff. Jin winces at the sound, "oh, that looked like grand slam!" Both humans then turn towards the demon woman, Kagome rushes forward, "let him go please." The two humans grab on to Inuyasha's inert form, but the demon would not let go. And Inuyasha continues to be absorbed into the monsters body. Kagome's eyes widen in fear for the well being of her "friend". "Oh, no what am I gonna' do now?" Myoga then jumps up onto Kagome's shoulder, "Kagome you must awaken Inuyasha's spirit." The flea demon gestures towards the demon woman, "behold, the un-mother, a demon spirit born from the grief of loosing children to famine and war. She seeks to fill the void within herself by taking the spirits of others, in this case INUYASHA'S!" Kagome turns to the blood sucker, "okay I get that, but what am I supposed to do?" Kagome then turns to face the spirit and gasps in shock, as all that remains of Inuyasha is his arm. In a moment of panic driven genius Jin taps the Onsu OnKaku against his wrist. "What are you doing?" Asks Kagome, "well maybe this will slow her down, until we can figure out what to do." Kagome stares at the situation, and notices something, the reflection in the water, shows a _very_ different scene. In the water, a young Inuyasha is sleeping in the embrace of the un-mother. Kagome stares at the reflection, that child, he must be Inuyasha! That how it works, the illusion, if I destroy the illusion I break the spell. Kagome rushes forward and strikes at the water with Jaken's staff, the un-mother lurches back, as if being hit with a baseball bat, and Inuyasha is expelled from the spirits body, like a spit ball from a straw.

The half-demon boy lands on his rear with a thud and a grunt. Jin grabs the Onsu OnKaku to stop its ringing, then he and Kagome run up to the Hanyo. "Yo, dog breath are you okay?" Inuyasha snaps out of his trance and then glares at the un-mother, "you, pretended to be my." Inuyasha clenches his fists tightly, "I can't believe I fell for it, I can't believe I thought she was my." Inuyasha doesn't dare finish his thought, as Kagome gently places a placating arm on the dog boy's shoulder. "But it was Jaken and Sesshomaru that did this." "Inuyasha." From within the fog the infamous form of Sesshomaru appears like ghost of the past. "I know where it is now." Before anyone can do anything Inuyasha's full demon brother zips forward with unbelievable speed and than grabs Inuyasha by his neck. Inuyasha struggles and gasps for air, while his brother hefts him off of the ground. "Of all the places for him to hide it, all this time, beneath our very noses, or to be more accurate right above our very noses. Father was determined to keep it a secret, which is why he chose to hid it here." Inuyasha continues to struggle, "what are you talking about, you're making no sense at all." "Well then little brother, since it was done obviously without your knowledge, how would you like to come with me and find out?"

Yellow energy surges from Sesshomaru's fingers into Inuyasha's right eye, causing the younger dog boy to scream in agony. Inuyasha's friends all call out to him in worry, "Inuyasha!" "Inuyasha!" "Lord Inuyasha!" From Inuyasha's eye comes a tiny orb of light which lands gently in Sesshomaru's hand and then coalesces into a small black pearl, Sesshomaru then drops Inuyasha, the hanyo landing on the ground clutching his right eye in pain. For the first time since meeting him, Sesshomaru smirks in victory, "this explains why searching underground was useless. Seeing yet never seen, protected yet unknown to its protector. Our father's tomb hidden within a black pearl placed deep within your right eye." Inuyasha removes his hand from his eye, revealing that the pupil is gone. "All of this just for somethin' like that. You pretended she was my mother." Sesshomaru smirks at his brothers pain, "you are not amused?" "NO I'M NOT!" yells Inuyasha before taking a claw swipe at Sesshomaru, the older demon seems to blur as he jumps out of the way, easily dodging Inuyasha's attack. Sesshomaru then whips his hand forward creating an energy whip which knocks Inuyasha to the ground, the villain then launches another energy whip at his brother, this one aimed to kill. But when all seems lost, the un-mother leaps in-front of Inuyasha, sacrificing herself but saving the demon boy. All three heroes eye's widen in shock, "the un-mother" starts Jin, "she sacrificed herself" finished Kagome. Little Myoga then speaks up from his spot on Kagome's shoulder. "Demon-spirit or not, she still had a mothers heart, and isn't protecting her child the one thing any mother can't help but do."

The only piece of the un-mother in tact is her head, and the last words she speaks on this plane of existence is a pitiful, "my boy". Before Sesshomaru finishes her off with another crack of his energy whip. Kagome leers at the noble demon, "Hey you," but Kagome's rant ends before it begins as Inuyasha steps in front of her, "Kagome don't he'll just kill us all." Jaken now finally regaining consciousness crawls through the grass towards his master. "Lord Sesshomaru, the staff of two heads is ours once more." Sesshomaru then takes the staff in his hand, "at last, my time has come." Sesshomaru then drops the pearl on the ground and then touches the precious stone with the base of the staff. The eyes on the old man head snap open, before laughing manically. Jaken's eyes widen in excitement, "the old man laughs, this means the tomb will open." From the pearl a black vortex appears in mid air, right in front of the vile duo, mere seconds later the two villains enter the portal and vanish before the eyes of our heroes. "They're gone." Says Kagome, it is then that Myoga decides to intervene, he jumps up and down on Inuyasha's shoulder speaking to the stubborn demon boy. "The portal, we must move quickly and follow them before it closes." But Inuyasha simply stands there, "do you want Sesshomaru to take sole possession of your father's treasure?" Inuyasha scoffs at the flea demon, "let them, what do I care." Myoga looks at his master, "but, sire." Inuyasha then growls at the flea, "hey I didn't say I wasn't going after them okay." He then turns to his human companions, "you two stay here, it's too dangerous." But Kagome and Jin aren't standing behind Inuyasha they're already going through the portal.

Inuyasha is quick to follow the two, and they then find themselves falling through mid-air, Jin holding tight onto his friend. From his spot in the sky Inuyasha yells at the human duo "you do realize Sesshomaru is here right?" Jin then yells back up at Inuyasha, "well that's why were here, we gotta' deal with this guy now, or he could easily come back and kill us all." As the three fall through the air they are caught by large birds, who appear to be made only of bones and feathers. The two humans look at the giant skeleton before them in total awe, Inuyasha's eyes narrow slightly, "father." Kagome looks at the demon boy in surprise, "that's your dad?" Jin raises an eyebrow in confusion, "boy I thought my dad was big boned." Inuyasha glares at the humans, "of course that's my dad. I mean who else could it be?" Kagome stares at the dead demon, "not that he was alive once, it's just there huge okay." Myoga from his spot, clasping onto Inuyasha's necklace then tries to explain the situation to the two mortals. "It's true, they're huge because he himself was of incomparable stature. In here he is in his truest form, completely undisguised. And the treasure sword imbedded within his bones is what Sesshomaru is after." The bone bird then dives down into the throat of the long expired demon following the trail of the first son.

Deep within the colossal skeleton, atop a floor littered with skulls, stands Sesshomaru before a small altar. "Here is what I have sought. At last I shall take possession of the sacred sword." On top of the altar, its point driven into the ground is old, rusty-looking Katana. "The lethal, legendary blade known to kill a hundred foes with a single stroke, Tetsusaiga." Sesshomaru's voice is full of awe at the threadbare blade, while Jaken cackles gleefully at his master's success. "They say it was forged of a fang from your father's own mouth. Once you possess the mighty Tetsusaiga you'll possess his incredible power as well." Sesshomaru reaches out towards the sword and clasps it, the sword begins to spark violently forcing Sesshomaru to let go. Sesshomaru glances at his stinging right hand contemplating what went wrong. "Father has done his work well. The blade has been entirely ensorcelled." "Sesshomaru!" The elder dog brother turns around and sees his sibling and his two human companions. Inuyasha leaps down swinging his claws in a wide arc, "we aint finished yet." Sesshomaru, "warps" out of the way, and Inuyasha crashes to the ground creating fissures throughout the floor. "Be more respectful. This is our fathers tomb." Inuyasha leers up at his brother, "oh, look who's talking. You're the one who's grave robbin'. Why don't _you_ respect him by leaving." Myoga leaps up onto Inuyasha's shoulder and begins yelling into his master's ear. "Lord Inuyasha, look behind you!" "What? Why?" Inuyasha does do as he's told and turns towards the altar. "Do you see it Lord Inuyasha? The blade from your fathers fang, the mighty Tetsusaiga."

Inuyasha stares at the rusty sword incredulously, "what this old thing? What a piece of junk! It couldn't cut through hot butter." Myoga glares at the hanyo, "Lord Inuyasha you must draw the sword, and you Sesshomaru. You couldn't pull it out, could you?" The evil brother glares down at the little flea, "you mean to say that Inuyasha can?" Myoga nods his head vigorously, "of course. It was always intended for Lord Inuyahsa." Then the little demon's eyes begin to shift nervously, as he sweats bullets. "He was entrusted with the tomb, wasn't he? That's proof enough if you ask me. Now hurry Lord Inuyasha and claim what's yours." Inuyasha scoffs and looks away from the sword in disgust, "inheritance? For all I care he can keep the rusty piece-o-junk. What I _do_ mind is all the other you did. It's a good thing your in a grave _bro_ cause you're gonna' die." Inuyasha leaps at Sesshomaru, swinging his swinging his claws. Sesshomaru simply dodges, seeming to disappear, Sesshomaru leaps to the floor with sarcastic, "was that aimed at me?" Inuyasha charges again, Sesshomaru dodges again, "you fight as though you were still a child." Inuyasha growls viciously at his brother, when Myoga yells at Inuyasha, "you can't fight him unarmed. Get the sword Lord Inuyasha!" Inuyasha brushes the little flea off of his shoulder, "you shut up!" That's when Kagome gets an idea, "Inuyasha, get the dumb sword already. Sesshomaru couldn't pull it out right? So if you can't hit him in the body, hit him where it'll really hurt." Jin's eyes widen in realization, "yeah, hit him in his ego, his pride! If that doesn't hurt him to some degree, nothin' will!" Stubborn he may be but Inuyasha does know a good idea when her hears one. "Yeah, Yeah, I'll do it! Even if it's only to see the look on your stupid face Sesshomaru." Inuyasha lunges towards the alter and grabs the hilt of the katana, which this time remains silent. Jaken's eyes widen in fear, "oh no, Inuyasha is immune to the spell that thwarted lord Sesshomaru!"

Myoga leaps up and down in excitement, "I knew it! Tetsusaiga is fated to become Lord Inuyasha's." Inuyasha then begins to pull the sword in classic King Arthur fashion, all watch with bated breath as the sword begins to glow with a gentle yellow light. And with one final mighty tug, the glow fades, and the sword remains stuck. A severely irritated Inuyasha grabs Myoga between his fingers and begins to squeeze the little vassal. "I couldn't pull out the sword." In his deadpan manner Sesshomaru speaks once again to his brother, "are you done?" He then rushes at Inuyasha with incredible speed, he slams into Inuyasha pinning his sibling to the wall. And for the second time he smirks, "I don't think you've met my poison claws." Sesshomaru's right hand begins to glow with a sickly green light, and prepares to skewer Inuyasha, when a familiar high pitch sound, that has proven itself adverse to demons rings throughout the tomb. "Henshin." Jin leaps to the ground in mid-transformation, his foot outward in a flying kick, the mutating flames disperse the second he collides with Sesshomaru, forcing him off of Inuyasha. "In case you've forgotten Mr. high-and-mighty Inuyasha's not the only one who can fight around here." Sesshomaru simply glairs at the demon of sound, before swinging his own claws at Jin, Jin then counters with his own claws, "_onidume!_" The two clash with a sound akin to two swords colliding. Jin then grabs his hand, damn, that hurt this guy _is_ strong. The two stare each other down, before Inuyasha rushes up and shoves Jin, "what the hell are you doing?" "Savin' your ass, that I'm doin'." "I didn't ask for your help." "And you probably never would have, that why I decided to be proactive."

Jaken glares at the two arguing demons, "two against one that is hardly fair." But before he could do anything about it he's crushed under Kagome as she leaps down to the fighters level. Jaken pries himself off of the floor, and glares at Kagome, "how dare you?" The little toad then swings his staff, with full intent to bean Kagome, but the girl from the future is faster as she grabs the head of the staff, but surprisingly the toady proves stronger and forces Kagome to the ground. She then pulls herself up using the sword as a lever. While this is going on, Jin and Inuyasha have decided to put their fight aside for now and get back to fighting. Both demon boys rush towards the villain both with their claws extended. Sesshomaru simply knocks Jin to the side and then pins Inuyasha to the wall. His poison claws ready, "it's time to end this, I'll deal with the false demon later. But now you die." Kagome upon seeing her friends are in trouble, rushes towards them. "Jin, Inuyasha!" But as she lunges forward, something spectacular happens, with a light pop, the sword comes right out of altar. Everyone stares in confusion and shock, Kagome sweatdrops, "um, sorry it just came out." Jin plams his forehead and mutters to himself, (oh, you've _got_ to be kidding me! WTF kami-sama, as if this guy doesn't have enough reasons to kill us.) Kagome just stares at the blade in her hand, confused. "What do I do now?"

Next time: chapter seven, Showdown! Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Jin.


	8. Showdown: Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Jin!

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound.

A Jin Shirinue fanfic

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

(): denotes thinking, : denotes English

**Showdown! Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and JIn**

When we last left our heroes, they were in a very precarious situation. Inuyasha and Jin where trapped in a life or death struggle with Inuyasha's evil brother Sesshomaru. With Inuyasha stuck on the receiving end of the death part. As Sesshomaru prepared to finish his brother off once and for all, Kagome makes the mistake of removing the source of this conflict, the ancient blade Tetsusaiga, from its resting place. And now we find everyone staring at the human girl with expressions of shock, confusion, and surprise, being the general feeling around the room.

After a little while Jaken, Sesshomaru's toady, in every possible sense of the word, is the first to speak. "This is impossible, neither Lord Sesshomaru nor Inuyasha could pull the sword. So how could a mere human manage it?" Sesshomaru, using his impressive speed rushes past his brother and appears in-front of Kagome, who lets of a surprised squeak. "What are you? And how did you draw the sword?" Seeing his friend in obvious danger Jin rushes forward, "Hey, pick on someone your own size you bully!" Jin grabs Sesshomaru by the arm and whips the demon around to slug him in the face. As Jin's fist sails forward Sesshomaru simply blurs out of the way, and now that his target is gone the forward flying fist causes the sound demon to lose his balance, forcing him to spin around, while Sesshomaru returns to his original position as though nothing happened.

Inuyasha watches the entire scene with his loyal, yet cowardly, servant Myoga the flea sitting on his shoulder. Myoga lets sighs in relief, "it's a good thing that he's after them now and not us, eh Lord Inuyasha?" The dog boy flicks the tiny coward off of his shoulder, "shut up you wuss!" He then turns to face his brother, scowling intensely. "Sesshomaru, leave them alone! They've got nothin' to do with this." Kagome whimpers nerviously as Sesshomaru stares at her. "You take on step closer, and I'll, I'll cut you." She says pointing the rusty Tetsusaiga at the vile assassin. Jin then pulls himself off of the ground and firmly places himself between Sesshomaru and his friend spreading his arms in the cliché protective pose, and even tough his eyes were hidden behind his helmet his posture screamed, "I dare you to try something."

Ignoring the armored demon and the human girl turns to speak to his brother. "For some unknown reason I was unable to draw the sword. But thankfully you were unable to draw it as well. The only clear answer to this situation is that she must die." Kagome squeaks pitifully and tries to make herself smaller behind her musical friend. "You're right, it is weird that she was able to pull out the sword and we couldn't, but that aside she's still a _human_ girl." He then yells to his full time human comrade, "Kagome give him the sword! You have no choice." Kagome fervently shakes her head, while pointing the sword at Sesshomaru. "No way! Why does he get to automatically keep it? If he couldn't pull it out it means he's not supposed to have it. He'll have to come and take it." Inuyasha growls at the girl's bravado. "Don't be stupid! You're only a human, so back off, shut up, and but out!"

Sesshomaru then smirks at the "stupidity" of the arguing couple. "Inuyasha your patience with this creature astonishes me. You protect her, indulge her, even seem to love her. Certainly these "feelings of mercy" of yours are _not _something _I_ inherited from our great and terrible father. It must have been that mother of yours, that _human_ mother who caused our father to end up in such a terrible place. Her blood affects you as well. Is it that which endures this human and this false demon to you? But when it comes to humans, _I_, of course bear no such weakness."

Sesshomaru then backhands Jin out of the way, allowing his palm to face Kagome, and from Sesshomaru's open hand emerges the green poison energy. Kagome winces in surprise and closes her eyes. Both boys are shocked by this turn of events "KAGOME!" they both scream. Then the wall behind the human girl melts, as though exposed to powerful acid, burring the girl in liquid stone. Sesshomaru waves his hand dispelling the remaining poison energy viewing the murderous seen as an artist would his latest piece. "So fragile wouldn't you agree little brother? But this also applies to half breeds such as you." Inuyasha grits his teeth and is about to launch himself at his brother, when something amazing happens. The temperature in the room rises by several degrees, the two brothers turn to face the sometimes human warrior. Jin's hands are clenched into fists so tight, that if they weren't padded blood would begin to trickle down his fists. Smoke begins to rise from the ground around Jin as he gets hotter and hotter with rage at loosing his best friend. "You, son-of-a-bitch!" Then from the ground in-front of him rise two large pillars of purple flame, acting on instinct alone Jin then reaches forward and grasps the pillars with his "bare" hands. The pillars then become thinner and shrink down to two small lines of flame, each one about the size of a night stick. Then with a simple gesture the flames disappear leaving in Jin's hands a pair of large mallets, like the drummers would use in the Japanese spring festivals.

With a scream of rage and agony Jin rushes forward wielding his weapons with impressive accuracy. Sesshomaru swings his claws in a defensive arc, the two collide with a loud metallic crash, but unlike before when Jin's claws were easily knocked aside by the elder canine demon, the large club manages to stop the claws in their tracks. Inuyasha then uses this moment to try and surprise his brother, "IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!" Inuyasha swings _his_ claws, surging with the power of his signature move. But in spite of grappling with the enraged sound demon Sesshomaru manages to leap out of the way of Inuyasha's attack, and then ties his brother up with the large white fur boa that he wrapped around his shoulder. "How can either of you think that with your dirty blood you can defeat me?" Jin turns towards Sesshomaru rage apparent, "SHUT UP!" his mouth piece molds and mutates into a vicious oni grin and with a cry of, "_hojutsu onibi_!" Jin unleashes a stream of purple flame from his newly formed mouth.

Sesshomaru simple twists out of the way, throwing Inuyasha into the wall with a loud crash. Inuyasha then tries to push himself back up, but Sesshomaru retaliates with his energy whip. "Know you're place in the world you worthless half breed." But thankfully mere seconds before the whip connects Jin jumps into its path deflecting it with his large drumsticks. "You leave him alone." Jin rushes forward with one of his clubs swinging and missing Sesshomaru, hitting the ground where the demon lord once stood, causing large chunks of rubble to spray from the point of impact. Inuyasha struggles to get back to his feet while contemplating Sesshomaru's words. "Half-breed am I?"

Inyahsa flashes back to many, many years ago. Where a chibi-Inuyasha is playing with his ball, passing various people along the way, the ball rolls across a bridge onto an island in the middle of a lake, the whispers of the passersby not missed by his keen ears. "Half-breed?" asks young Inuyasha to the air, he then turns around and behind him is the very familiar form of his mother. Inuyasha runs up to the woman, "Mother what's half-breed mean?" That's right I remember now. My mother, she was crying, for me. _She_ knew what it meant, and what my life would be like.

Back in the waking world Inuyasha finally manages to stand up, "half-breed or not it doesn't matter to me. But when you insult my mother _that's_ when I get angry. For her sake if nothing else, I'm gonna' make you pay!" With unbelievable speed Inuyasha rushes towards the stalemate between his brother and his ally. "Mind if I cut in!" yells the half-demon swinging his claws and catching Sesshomaru on his shoulder, to everyone's surprise. "That was for my mother." Sesshomaru leaps away in an attempt to put more distance between himself and his brother, but Inuyasha quickly and easily follows him, catching the elder dog demon on the shoulder again, "and this is for Kagome!" Jaken stares at the sudden turn of events, "how can this be? A mere moment ago he couldn't hope to hit Sesshomaru." "Yeah he's full of surprises ain't he?" Jaken's eyes widen further as he slowly and nervously turns around to find a very pissed off sound demon standing behind him. "And now I find myself without a dance partner." Jin "grins" sinisterly at the little toad. Jaken screams in terror and runs for his little life, Jin nonchalantly following the frog.

The two brothers land on the ground facing away from one another, and with a loud crack the bone plate around Sesshomaru's shoulder falls to pieces. "All of that for a memory and a dead girl?" Asks the elder brother with a skeptical look on his face, "if I'd known that's what it took to make you fight, I would have killed her sooner." Inuyasha growls at his brother, "I'm gonna' slit your stomach, take out your guts and put 'em in a bowl. By the time I'm through your gonna' wish it was _you_ who was dead!" Then from the slime that was once the south wall Kagome emerges with a gasp, completely unharmed. With that simple action everything stops and everyone stares at the girl. She then points the old sword as Sesshomaru, "hey, you! You tried to kill me didn't you? Don't go thinking that your gonna' get away with it." She then steps over the melted stone and hands the blade to Inuyasha. "Here I can safely say that we've underestimated it. Don't let me down okay." Inuyasha stares at the human girl, "how are you still," Inuyasha's question is left unfinished as a purple and black blur rushes across the room and almost bowls Kagome over in a powerful hug. "KAGOME you're a live! Oh, thank the gods." Kagome's face then begins to progressively turn red, "yes Jin I'm alive but you don't have to choke me to prove it." Jin then slowly puts Kagome down and rubs the back of his head in embarrassment, and probably is blushing behind his helmet.

Sesshomaru is the first to realize exactly what happened, "the sword, that is what protected you." Myoga begins leaping up and down on Inuyasha's shoulder in excitement, "it's true master those claws of his drip deadly poison. It had to have been the sword or else she would have died for sure. Why not put it to a real test and try it on Sesshomaru?" The aforementioned demons eyes widen at the audacity of the small demon, then a aura of purple smoke begins to circle around Sesshomaru as his battle aura begins to change. "Big words from such small vermin. Let's see if a half breed can even _wield_ the Tetsusaiga. I myself SHAL BE THE WITNESS." Shesshomaru's eyes begin to glow blood red as his body begins to mutate, the process is obscured by a cloud of purple smoke, but when the fog clears, in Sesshomaru's place stands a colossal white dog, as tall as a three story house, and as long as a small whale. It's eyes are blood red, a dead contrast to the silver white fur that adorns its body. Its mouth opens in a vicious growl showing the gigantic fangs and the long frayed tongue.

Kagome hides herself behind the two demon men, her eyes wide with fright. "He's changed." "Good cause now we can see his real form." Sesshomaru growls viciously while plodding towards the heroes. Inyasha then glances down at the sword in his hand, "well now that I've got this I'll win for sure. Ayup I'd say this battles finished juuuust before it gets started." Inuyasha then turns to Kagome, "you go hide somewhere until this whole thing is over." Kagome nods and looks around the sparse room. "Okay but hide were?" Inuyasha then leaps into the air brandishing the Tetsusaiga in one hand. "Okay sword, this is it! Time to show me what your made of." Inuyasha swings the sword down and with a loud clank it connects, and Sesshomaru knocks his brother away as though he were nothing. Inuyasha clashes into the wall causing even more debris to go flying into the air. Inuyasha pulls himself out of the newest crater and shakes the cobwebs out of his head, "what the hell? This thing didn't even leave a scratch!"

Sesshomaru stands in front of the heroes smirking in a canine fashion as huge globs of drool exit his open maw, and the second the spittle hits the ground huge clouds of a sickly green gas begin to climb into the air. Inuyasha turns to his assistant, "hey Myoga what gives? This sword can't _even_ bruise let a lone cut." A close up of the flea shows him packing his things into a blue bundle, sweating nervously. "Well you see Lord Inuyasha, I suppose that uh, it will, uh make a lovely heirloom, if uh, nothing else. Besides i-it's the thought that counts isn't it? Now if you excuse me!" And with that the flea leaps off of Inuyasha and runs off leaving an appropriately sizes cloud of dust behind. "Just make sure that Sesshomaru doesn't push you around okay!" "Why you little coward! Get back here!" All the while during this little exchange Sesshomaru continues to fill the air with poison gas. Realizing the danger Inuyasha turns to his friends, "Jin get Kagome off of the ground." Jin nods, "okay, uh what do you suggest?" "What do you think I suggest braniac climb." "Okay, okay, you don't have to yell, sheesh." Jin picks up Kagome in classic piggy back fashion and uses his claws to dig into the wall and begin his ascension.

As the two continue to climb, on the ground Inuyasha continues to clash with Sesshomaru on the floor. Kagome looks down on her pseudo-friend, "Inuyasha." Surprisingly at this time Myoga manages to catch up to the two jewel seekers. "Keep moving, even a demon can't stay in these fumes for long." Myoga's statement proves true, as even Jaken begins to flee the toxic cloud. Jin the looks over at the tiny coward, "but what about Inuyasha is he gonna' be okay?" Myoga shrugs and then with the same casualty that one would use to talk about the weather says, "oh, not really no. Now enough of these heroics, it's every flea for himself!" At that Myoga takes off again, this time getting chewed out by the sound demon, "get back here you coward. When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna introduce you to flea powder, THE HARD WAY!" Back down on the ground the poison begins to effect Inuyasha as he begins to cough and hack. "Oh man this poison is strong. Even _I_ can't stay down here much longer." Inuyasha leaps into the air and lands on a plateau above the poison smoke, "ugh,my arms and legs are goin' numb!"

Sesshomaru takes this opportunity to sneak up on his brother and clamp him in his huge jaws. The colossal dog then drags his brother back down into the toxic fog hoping to finish him off. Inuyasha struggles and then manages to get his sword arm free. "I'll bet even a mosquito with wooden teeth has harder bite than this piece of junk." With a desperate flail Inuyasha manages to stab Sesshomaru in the eye causing the dog to shake his head violently in surprise. Sesshomaru then leaps up into the air and crashes through the roof. Shortly afterwards Jin and Kagome had managed to reach the top, they are able to see the carnage that Inuyasha is involved in. Inuyasha then manages to shake free of his brother and then he lands on the ground with a thud. "Inuyasha are you okay?" Yells Jin. The three heroes and single villain now find themselves standing on top of the shoulder of Inuyasha's father, right next to his ginormous skull.

Suddenly Myoga pops up out of nowhere, right next to Jin and Kagome. "Now do you see the power of Tetsusaiga? You're giving Sesshomaru what for, I hope." Inuyasha then whurls around to face his little "assistant", "where the hell have you been? This thing's about as useful as a walking stick." Myoga waves his tiny arms around in a huff, "oh, so maybe it isn't from your father." Myoga punctuates this sentence by taking off once again. Both Kagome and Jin blink in confusion, "I don't believe this, he left _again_?" during the fight with Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, the half-breed dodges another swipe from his brother, while grunting "why am I not surprised?" He then glances at the rusty sword in his right hand, "the real question is, what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" "I don't know, but I know I know what I'm gonna' do with mine." Jin leaps forward and smacks Sesshomaru in the muzzle with one of his drumsticks with a satisfying crack. Inuyasha then leaps back and tries to asses the situation. "You sock it to him Inuyasha! I think that last one actually hurt him!" Inuyasha then turns to Kagome, "your kidding me right? Your boyfriend is doing more damage with his blunt weapons that I am with stupid sword!" Kagome smiles at the irate half-demon, "it's not that hard really. You just need to believe in your weapon like Jin believes in his and like I believe in both of you."

Back at the fight Shesshomaru manages to work his way around Jin and begins to approach the other two. Inuyasha then scoffs at the "silly" girl "you _are_ nuts! This sword's good for nothin'. I'll survive because I'm a half-demon and Jin might survive, but you, you're just a human you ain't got a chance." He then looks back at Kagome and to his shock he sees tears start to well up in her eyes. "So what I should just give up hope?" "Aw, don't start cryin!" "So what I should just give up." Inuyasha scowls, "no, what you should do is shut up and let me protect you." Both Kagome and Jin blink in surprise at this comment. Sesshomaru growls sinisterly and draws closer to the two. Inuyasha stands in-front of Kagome, "you just stay here and watch." Kagome simply stares at the hanyo, did I imagine that, or did he just say that he'd protect me? Now that I think about it he's a lot like his brother. But most of the time he's completely different. Inuyasha takes his place next to Jin in-front of Sesshomaru, the older dog growing viciously. "Yeah, yeah grrr, yourself you overgrown flea farm." Mocks Jin. Inuyasha steps forward and brandishes the Tetsusaiga, "let's just get this over with." And then something amazing happens, the sword then begins to pulse with energy. Inuyasha stares at the sword, "the Tetsusaiga is pulsing." Jin also contemplates the sword, yeah I can hear it too. It's different from the first time though, I think we triggered something.

A little ways away Jaken stands on the side lines yelling encouragement to his master. "That's it milord bite there heads off and feast on their innards. Grind them into," thankfully his thought is not finished as he is interrupted by a human skull whizzing through the air and colliding with his head emanating a loud crack. Kagome, being the one who threw the skull, yells at the annoying toad, "we'll see who eats whom." The then looks back at her friends, come on guys I know you can do it, if you just work together. Shesshomaru then leaps into the air, fully intent on crushing the two demons. Inuyasha is the one to make the first move, as he also leaps into the air brandishing the Tetsusaiga, and with one well placed cut Shesshomaru's left front paw gets cut clean off. When Inuyasha then lands on the ground he takes another look at the old sword to see that it has undergone a miraculous transformation. The sword is wider and longer, resembling a zwihander, or a halberd, on the top most half of the hilt is a tuft of silver fur similar to Inuyasha's long hair. Inuyasha stares and stares at the transformed blade. "I don't believe it. It look like a fang." Jin gives his forehead a little slap, "duh man of course it's a fang." Inuyasha lets this insult to his intelegence slide by, this time, and grips the mighty blade in his hands, "looks like the old man left something worth while after all."

Inuyasha stares defiantly at his profusely bleeding brother. "So here we are, two brothers fighting over father's sword. But compared to him you an' me and everyone else here are nothing. Don't you get it? Were like a bunch of fleas jumping around on his body. We'd be lucky if he didn't squash us flat. So maybe I don't have to many memories of him, but _I_ was the one he decided to hide his tomb in after all. I'd rather give up my eye than give up this sword. Maybe I'm not so worthless after all huh?" Seshomaru roars angrily and charges at his brother. "I've had enough!" Yells both boys at the same time, both leap into the air, Inuyasha cutting his brother across the chest Jin coming down on top of Sesshomaru's head with both mallets and a cry of, "_Ongenki Da Gouka!_" Sesshomaru falls from his fathers body, and as he plummets he simply disappears. Jaken's eyes are wide with shock at his masters defeat. "Lord Sesshomaru, don't leave meeeee!" With that Jaken also disappears leaving the three friends all alone. Both boys collapse to the ground Jin's armor disappearing from the sheer exhaustion. Kagome runs up to the two boys, "are you two okay?" Her voice dripping with concern.

Inyuasha chuckles and smirks in his usual fashion. "You know what? I take it back, the swords not such a piece of junk after all. And you ain't worthless either music boy." Jin to tired to make a witty reply simply smirks while catching his breath. The from Inuyasha's shoulder comes a familiar voice. "You see I was right." Says Myoga, "of course if you'd listened earlier you'd have never," Inuyasha's finger begins to descend on the flea fully intent on crushing him, but Myoga stops him, "wait look over there." And a short distance away was a pair of skeleton birds ready to carry the heroes out of the tomb. "You see, I wasn't running away, I was simply fetching us a ride home. You do believe me right?" Inuyasha smiles at the loyalty of little demon, "so didn't run away huh?" But upon seeing the happy smile on Inuyasha's face Myoga breaks down and falls to his knees in shame. "Okay I admit it, I ran away. But you have to believe me? I I'd known that you'd make a comeback I'd have never ran away. I'm ashamed of myself, I should've had more faith. If there is any way I could make it up to you please let me know."

Inuyasha then simply squishes the little demon between his finger and thumb, once again flattening the flea to the consistency of paper. As he tumbles down, in a paper like fashion Myoga mumbles to himself, "ah, such is a flea's lot in life." Eventually the three exit the tomb and find themselves in the same field that they were in last night. The exit portal transforms back into the black pearl and renters Inuyasha's eye. Jin flops down on the ground whipping the sweat from his forehead while Kagome places a reassuring hand on Inuyasha's shoulder, "you feelin' okay." Inuyasha then smiles, "actually I feel pretty okay. Everything's back to normal." Jin scoffs and looks up at his new friend and with laughter in his voice says, "As normal as it gets for us anyway." Inuyasha then chuckles at Jin's little joke, "yeah, well at least now I know the old man can rest in peace."

A little while later the three managed to make their way back to Kaede's village, and we then find Kagome, Jin, and Myoga sitting in Kaede's hut and relaying what happened to the old priestess. Kaede stares wide eyed at the reincarnation of her sister, "but how was it that ye was able to pull the Tetsusaiga? I must say ye continue to surprise me." Myoga clears his tiny throat to gain the attention of everyone in the room. "I have a theory about that. I believe that it was because Kagome is mortal. For you see the sword was forged by Lord Inuyasha's father, as a way to protect his mortal mother. It was Inuyasha's feelings towards mortals that allowed Lord Inuyasha to wield it effectively. For someone like Sesshomaru who could only hate humans wielding the Tetsusaiga would be impossible."

Kaede nods her head sagely, "tis a strange story indeed." Jin looks over at the old woman, "no stranger than anything else we've been through up to this point." Kaede nods her head again, "ay that be true, but that aside to Inuyasha his human heritage has been a curse. His feelings for his mother have been tinged with shame. And yet those same feelings are what make him different. _That_ is why his father chose him for his resting place. Perhaps the one who most resembles the father is not Sesshomaru but Inuyasha." Jin glances around the room, "speaking of which where is the overgrown poodle anyway?"

A little while later we find Inuyasha, once again, sitting in the branch of a tree looking at the Tetsusaiga's rusty form. "Aw great, looks like I spoke to soon the things a rusty piece of junk again." "Oh, Inuyasha!" the hanyo looks down to see Kagome and Jin standing beneath his branch, the girl bearing a shining cat-who-ate-the-canary grin. "Do you want me to tell you? You know how to use the Tetsusaiga?" Inuyasha leaps down from his branch to stand in-front of the two teens, "what so now you're an expert all of the sudden?" Kagome just smiles and saunters up to the demon boy. "First, do you promise to protect me with it forever and ever?" Inuyasha stares at the girl with an, "are you crazy?" look. "What in the world are you babbling about woman? Your brains broken or something." A stress vein appears on Kagome's forehead, "you said I should let you protect me!" "Well I didn't mean it like that. I you'll shut up for a minute I'll tell you what a sword like this should be really used for. Stuff like collecting jewel shards, and makin' me more powerful. Like I would waste it on babysitting a helpless little human like you." Jin slaps his hand to his forehead and squeezes the bridge of his nose in a futile attempt to stay the migraine developing, (oh, not smart even for you dog boy)

Kagome shoves Inuyasha onto a small bridge over a nearby stream. She then walks back to Jin and with a simple, "sit boy!" Inuyasha finds himself soaked to the bone. "Come on Jin." Says Kagome after grabbing the human boy's arm and dragging him off, with Inuyasha yelling after them. "Hey come back here you said that you'd teach me how to use the sword! Don't you walk away when I'm talking to you."

Next time: The Toad who would be prince


	9. The Toad Who would be Prince

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound.

A Jin Shirinue fanfic

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

(): denotes thoughts '': Denotes English

**Chapter 8: The Toad who would be Prince.**

Following the great battle with Sesshomaru, and the neccesary time to recover, our heroes set off to begin the search for the jewel shards of the Shikon no Tama. And so we join them a distance away from Kaede's village with Kagome taking a nice swim in a local stream, with her wearing a lovely one piece striped orange and yellow swimsuit. She stands up in the shallows and reaches to the sky. "Ah, that was refreshing, the water is clean the air is fresh, it's not so bad being in the middle ages." And what are the men of the group doing that would draw their attention away from this sight of fan service. A muffled crash in the distance answers that question, as Inuyasha was tossed over Jin's shoulder into a tree. "Come on dog boy, you try the same things over and over again, add some variety or something." Inuyasha picks himself off of the ground and dusts his shirt off. "Not like any of this sparing matters, we've been lookin' for three days now." Inuyasha then looks up at a nearby branch with little Myoga sitting on top. "And you said if we left the village we'd find more jewel pieces out here in Musashi, but we haven't found a single one."

But Myoga is clearly not paying attention as he is staring off into the distance. Inuyasha scowls at the little demon, "hey flea boy as you listening to me." Myoga blinks in confusion, "Huh? What was that, I'm sorry it's just that I was destracted by our young lady down there." Myoga leaps off of his pearch and hops off in Kagome's direction, "I'm just gonna' go check on her." The two demon boys look at each other before Inuyasha starts yelling after the flea demon, "hey, I wouldn't if I were you." Jin nods, "Yeah Inuyasha's right, your just gonna get yourself clobbered, so don't you," but suddenly a small white form rushes by causing the leaves to rustle. Both demon fighters catch this passing thing and begin to chase it. The white blur zipps down the hill side jumping from stone to tree at an amazing pace, with the two demon warriors following it closely and shooting past Myoga, who narrows his eyes in a sneaky manner, "ah, I knew it no boy could resist this opportunity."

Down by the river Kagome sees something that causes her to scream in surpise, causing the two demon heroes, who have finally made it to the river side, to be thrown off kilter and forcing one of them to be thrown in to the river with a loud splash. Jin pulls himself from the water, sputtering, (A.N.: don't how he could swallow water through that armor he just did.) "Good grief don't scare us like that girl." Inuyasha who managed to find balance on a stone rights himself, "this isn't what you think ya know." Kagome points to the west, "that wasn't because of you guys, it's because of my clothes."

A small distance away benath a large oak tree sits a young man, a little older than Jin, wearing a blue Hakama with a pink shirt, his brown hair tied into a small pony tail, aparently waiting for something. When out of the bushes comes, a white monkey, carrying Kagome's clothes. The monkey runs up to the man and leaps into his lap, the young man smiles at his little companion, "that's a good boy, so wha'dja bring me?" The man begins sorting through Kagome' clothes, including her unmentionables. "What the, this doesn't look like something to eat." That's when the jewel seekers leap/climb out of the bushes. Jin pointing his finger accusingly at the man, "so you're the hentai who trained that ape." "Give me back my clothes!" The man is startled by their sudden appearance and draws a sword from his side, "who are you people? You look pretty suspicious to me." Then a loud bonk rings through the air as the man finds himself on his side with a large bump on his head and Jin standing over him with one of his drumsticks in hand, "yeah, well same to you zenith boy."

A little while later, after the man recoverd his consciousness, Kagome her clothes returned, and the misunderstanding settled. The man and his primate pal are now wolfing down a bag of potato chips, Jin raises his eyebrow at the scene, "wow you must have been hungry." He says before finishing his bottled water crushing the plastic cylinder in his hand and deftly tossing it back into his bag. Kagome then reaches into her bag, "Hey Inuyasha I've got something in here for you too." Inuyasha scoffs from his spot leaning on the trunk of the large tree, "no thank you." "If you eat it, I won't have to carry it." Inyasha leaps up from his spot and picks up Kagome's bag in a huff. "It's not my fault you've gotta carry around so much junk." Kagome scowls a little at the demon boy, "it's not junk, it's homework, and clothes, and," Inuyasha sighs in annoyance, "oh I give up."

After his improptue meal the man places his hands together in thanks, his little friend mimicing his masters movements perfectly. "I thank you for meal my friends, I must say these 'chips potato' were most delicious." Kagome smiles at their new acquaintance, "it's no problem, I'm Kagome, this is Jin and Inuyasha." A sucking noise followed by their new friend slapping his cheek indicates where the last member of the jewel hunting group is. "And that's Myoga the flea." Says Kagome as the flattened flea drifts to the ground. Jin stands up from his place on the ground and walks up to the stranger. "You mentioned earlier that you got separated from your allies. Does that mean you're a nobleman?" The man turns his back to the jewel seekers, "I'm not at liberty to reveal my family, but _my_ name is Nobunaga." As the sun shines down dramatically down through the leaves of the tree above them Kagome squeals in excitement. "Nobunaga, you mean _the_ Nobunaga?" The teen girl rushes up to Nobunaga and excitedly grabs his hand, "let me shake your hand." And then, from what scientists have officially labeled hammer space, Kagome produces a sumi brush and a pad of paper. "Can I get your autograph, your full name if you please?" Nobunaga though decidedly confused agrees to the girls request, as he begins to write Inuyasha looks at the girl, as if not more confused than Nobunaga, "what's got you so excited?" Kagome turns to Inuyasha, "that's Oda Nobunaga, I mean _hello_ didn't you study history." Jin then looks over Kagome's shoulder, "um, I hate to your fangirl moment Kagome-chan but that's _not_ what the signature says." Myoga then jumps up onto Kagome's shoulder, "yes Jin quite right about this."

"_Amari_ Nobunaga." Reads Kagome, she then turns to Nobunaga, "but I thought you were _Oda_ Nobunaga." Nobunaga scoffs angrely and turns his back to the future girl, "_I_ belong to the noble Takeda clan in the land of Kai. Please do not confuse me with _him_." Kagome then gets alittle closer to Nobunaga, "so you know him." Nobunaga nods, "yeah, I do, and he's a big idiot." "Well if you weren't Oda Nobunaga then you should've said so. And here I thought you were living history." Sighs Kagome degectively, Jin waltzes up to Kagome and places a hand on her shoulder, "there, there, there'll be plenty of other opportunites to meet famous historical figures." Nobunaga again turns his back to the three friends and begins to walk away, "I trust you'll excuse me, there is an important mission that demands my attention. Fare-the-well my strange friends." Inuyasha then calls to Nobunaga, "hey, I wouldn't go that way if I were you." The dog boys call is punctuated by Nobunaga letting lose a surprised scream as he tumbles down a small cliff and hits thr ground head first. "I tried to warn you." Kagome stares down at the clumsy man, "a loser maybe, but Oda Nobunaga," "probably not." Finishes Jin.

A distance away in a new village, new to our heroes anyway, a group of woman are being a set of solders. The men of the village can only watch in silent sorrow, "haven't they taken enough young women away from out village already?" "Of all the girls summond to the castle not one has returned." Meanwhile in the bushes is Nobunaga, "aha I knew it! So all of the rumors I've heard were true after all." Then out of the underbrush crawls Kagome, Jin, and Inuyasha. The constantly irate hanyo whirls towards the feminine part of the duo from the future, "so why was it that we had to follow this guy again?" "Because he needs us and we can't leave him alone." Then one of the villages says something that catches the attention of the spies, "you didn't hear it from me, but they say that the lord's been possesed by some kind of demon." "A DEMON!" the group whispers in surpise.

Meanwhile several miles away within a large mountain castle sits two people, one of them a beautiful woman with long black hair, wearing a red kimono decorated with images of yellow flowers. Sitting with her in the empty room is a large man swathed in bandages, wearing blue Hakama decorated similarly to the womans, but with lilly pads instead of flowers. The woman pours the man a cup of tea, while the man chuckles and speaks to her, his voice muffled by the bandages over his face, "Do you enjoy the life within the castle my princess?" "Indeed milord, I yearn for nothing." The bandaged man laughs and raises his saucer high, "that all right." The woman then smiles plesantly at the man, "if I may milord, the young women milord honors by generously summoning them to the castle might I ask where they are?" The question in itself is simple, but it clearly strikes a chord with the lord of the palace, he drops his saucer and angrely crushes it with his bandaged hand, "NO, you may not!" The woman bows her head, "forgive me milord I had no right to ask." The man simply laughs sinisterly and walks out of the room leaving the woman to her thoughts, (I'm so frightened, if only I could return to the land of Kai.)

As the sun set and the moon rised the three intrepid heroes and the bizzare Nobunaga arrived at the foot of the hill bearing the mysterious castle. Inuyasha looks up at the walls. "Yeah this is the place all right, it reaks of demon even from here. If there's a jewel shard around here it's gotta be in there. We need to scope it out, hop on you two." Inuyasha kneels down allowing both Jin and Kagome to climb onto his back, and as he preapares to leap Nobunaga latches on as well causing the Hanyo to growl at him, "hey whats the big idea, get off me." "I have buisness up there." "Then go find your own ride." Kagome cuts into the argument, "would just do it already?" Jin noods his head in agreement "she's right you know we've more important buisness to attened to." Inuyasha turns back to the wall and mumbles to himself, "why do I always gotta be the nice guy?" And with one mighty leap, Inuyasha, with three people and one monkey on his back, manages to clear the wall and land safely on the other side, right behind a guard. Who at the time was thankfully asleep, along with every other guard in the courtyard.

Kagome looks around at the scene with a fairly critical eye, "well so much for castle security, it looks like they're all asleep." It was then that Myoga leaps out of the folds of Inuyasha's robes and onto his shoulder, "do not let this rouse fool you my friends. Their sleep is hypnotic not natural." Jin nods his head and glances around nerviously, "yeah that seems right, who knows it might even be castle wide." The silence of the castle grounds is broken suddenly by Nobunaga thrashing around the castle calling out at the top of his lungs, "Princess, Princess Tsuyu, it is I Nobunaga come to save you!" Jin sweatdropps at the bunglers overzealousness, "do you guys really think that we should be letting him make all this noise?" Inuyasha smirks at the teen boy, "what you scared or somethin', besides the sooner we find the demon the sooner we find the Jewel shard."

After several minutes of haphazerdous searching Nobunaga finnaly opens a door and sees a feminine form asleep on the ground. "Princess I've found you be not afraid." But when Nobunaga turns the woman around he finches back in surpise to see his beloved princess has become an old woman. "Oh, my princess what has happened to you!" Cries Nobunaga with tears pouring down his face, that is untill Kagome clears her throat, "Uh, Nobunaga I hate to interupt but isn't the princess over here." And sure enough sound asleep next to Kagome is indeed the princess, the same beautiful woman who was speaking to the lord of the castle earlier in the day. Myoga, the little opportunist, that he is jumps up onto Kagome's shoulder, "did somebody say princess, I have the perfect way to wake her up." With that Myoga jumps off of Kagome, lands on the princess, and begins to suck her blood, he is quickly cut off by the princess' hand shooting up to him and once again flattening the flea.

With a soft moan the princess' eyes gently drift open and in a flash Nobunaga is by her side. "Princess!" The princess' eyes then widen in recognition of the clumsy man, "Nobunaga what are you doing here?" "Do you truly remember me princess?" The princess then smiles, "of course I do, I would never forget you. You and I were friends when we were younger and you were always so very kind." Nobunaga then blushes and begins to wring his hands together, "I don't know what to say. I thought you wouldn't remember a lowly vassle such as myself." "I remember everything, how you used to fall into the koi pond, how I would laugh and laugh when you tripped and fell down the stairs." Nubounaga's blush then changes from one of shy adoration to one of pure embaressment. Kagome cocks her head in confusion, "hey guys, do you think that Nobunaga is in love with the princess?" Jin's head slowly turns away from the scene to his friend, "suppose? Kagome-chan it's writen all over his face." "It's pathetic if you ask me." "Well we weren't asking you dog breath."

The princess' eyes then begin to shine as tears begin to form, "if only I could go home" she sniffles, "it was shortly after I came here as his bride that my lord-husband began to act strangely. He fell into the garden pond and ran a terrible fever. And afterwards it was as though he became a different person. Oh, Nobunaga whatever shall I do?" That is when the vassal stands up and dramatically places his right fist on the left side of his chest, "fear not my princess, for now I know I must return you to Kai. Even your father, when he is so far from here, has heard of the lord's derangement. It is by his comand that I come to return you to him." "You came on my fathers orders?" Nobunaga reaches out and gently clasps the princess' hands in his own, "even if he did not order it I still would have come." "Nobunaga." "Yes my princess I'm listening." "Nobunaga, there's a monkey on your head." Nobunaga's primate companion then jumps into the air and lands on his masters head with a squeak that sounds like a "Tah, Dah." Nobunaga hangs his head in dissapointment with a sigh, "yes princess." Jin stares at the scene with a deadpan expression on his face, "Hokay that was embarrising," then Jin's and Inuyasha's ears both twitch, the hanyo's more that the sound demons for obvious reasons. The both whip around and face the door, "ya hear that dog boy sound like someones comeing." "And it's about time too, you comein' Kagome?"

The five people, seven if you count the monkey and the spineless flea, step into the hallway and there in front of them is the deranged lord still bound in bandages, "I _thought_ I heard somebody." Inuyasha then immediately rushes forward, "an' its about time somebody did." The lord opens his mouth and out of it shoots his tounge aimed right at Inuyasha but the hanyo jumps out of the way, while Jin pulls Kagome to the side to avoid the shrapnell created by the tounge slamming into the floor, "whoa, talk about a tounge lashing." Kagome the procedes to give her friend a small smack to the back of the head, the sometimes demon whimpers at the impact, "eh, brain discomfort!" "Do you really think now's the time to make jokes?" The boy from the future rubs the back of his head in embarresment, "sorry nervous habit." Inuyasha leaps at the lord, "now let's get a good look at you." With a loud rip, the the bandages around the lords face are shred to pieces revealing the green visage of humanoid frog, the frog demon startled by the attack falls onto its butt with a loud ribbit. Kagome grimaces at the sight, "ew, he's a toad?" "Eh, looks more a frog to me." The princess reaction is very different through, she faints outright thankfully caught by Nobunaga.

The toad sits there chortling sinisterly, when Kagome notices something, from the toads right shoulder comes the faint, but familiar pink glow of a jewel shard. "Guy's a piece of the jewel I saw it." Inuyasha then cracks his knuckles in anticipation. "Yeah well a fat lot of good it's done him so far." Myoga then leaps onto his master's shoulder, "not so fast lord Inuyasha, you must exercise caution. He is the ninety ninth toad of the ninety ninth generation, that makes him stronger then he looks." Inuyasha simply scoffs at this information, "well I'm sure that one good punch will make it a hundred." But the half-demons attack is intercepted by the toad who opens his mouth and unleashes a purple fog that stops Inuyasha in his tracks and forces him into a violent coughing fit.

The fog flows down the hall affecting everyone, Myoga bounces up and down on Kagome's shoulder, "Kagome these fumes are toxic that makes them very dangerous." Kagome coughing into her hand glares at the flea, "yeah I hadn't noticed". Inyuasha then collapes to the ground in a violent spasm while the toad demon stalks towards Nobunaga and the Princess, "Now give me back my princess." Nobunaga scowls and draws his sword protectively, "Stay away from her you monster." The Toad chortles sinisterly, "very funny as if you could stop me human scum." The toad demon punctuating his sentence by shooting his tongue at the accident prone vassal, and with a liquid squelch, following a squirt of blood Nobunaga's shoulder is pierced with the demons tongue, forcing him to release the princess and knocking him to the ground. The fiendish amphibian rushes forward and picks up the princess before leaping out of a window laughing all the way, "Nyah ha ha ha ha". The wounded vassal forces himself to stand up in spite of his injury. "Princess Tsuyu!" Kagome rushes to the man's side, "Nobunaga you should stay still your shoulder," Nobunaga shakes his head vehemently, "it doesn't matter what happens to me, you've gotta save the princes."

Kagome smiles at this declaration, "I knew it you're in love with the princess aren't you?" Nobunaga looks back up at Kagome his face plastered in a state of surprise, "How did you know?" Both Jin and Kagome are surprised by this and in a bizarre form of stereo both ask, "It was a secret?" Inuyasha then runs to the window that the toad leaped out of, "lousy stinkin' toad, there's no way he's getting away from me!" Inuyasha watched as the toad ran across the roof of the palace, his froggy footsteps echoing in the night. "I'm going on ahead!" yells Inuyasha, mere seconds before he also leaps out of the large hole left by the oversized amphibian, with Jin and Kagome calling after their part-time friend, "Hey, get back here kibble-for-brains!" "Inuyasha wait!"

--

In another part of the castle the toad demon looms sinisterly over the princess snickering at her fear. "Ah, my fair princess, I could just eat you up!" The princess gasps in horror at this statement, for the foul demon could easily mean this. Then with a loud crash Inuyasha busts through the wall sending debris flying everywhere, "I knew I'd find'ja." But the dog boys heroic entrance is interupted with his confused, "huh?" There in front of the Inu-hanyo is the toad demon, who has somehow managed to encapsulate the princess within a large ball of water the toad laughing evilly, "your all too late." Then through the hole that Inuyasha made enters the others, with Jin in his demon form supporting the wounded Nobunaga. That is when Kagome asks the question on everyone's mind, "What has he done to the princess?" Myoga leaps up on to the Miko's shoulder, "sealed like toad spawn, it is just as the rumors have said. Young women kept in egg-sacs until their souls ripen, that are then eaten. With the power of the jewel shard and the young lord's position no one could oppose him." Kagome then gulps nervously, "you mean that thing is going to eat Princess Tsuyu?" Upon hearing this Nobunaga pries himself from Jin's hold and rushes forward with his trusty sword in hand, "not while I'm alive!" he shouts. The toad just laughs before unleashing another purple cloud at the love struck man, Inuyasha leaps forward getting between Nobunaga and the caustic fog, "get down you idiot that's poison gas." Inuyasha then reaches down to the Tetsusaiga and draws the mystic blade then with a flash of light the rusty katana changes into its true form, leaving a deep gash in the toad's left shoulder.

Kagome cheers in excitement, "look he hit em!" Myoga bounces up and down while cheering for his master, "not only that he used Tetsusaiga to do it too!" Jin nods his head in understanding, "right because he was protecting a human!" Inuyasha flashes his usual confident smirk, "I'll dissect you with this, if I have to and cut the jewel out myself." The toad wails mournfully as sticky blood oozes out of his injury. "No! Don't want to die! Souls I need souls!" and with that last pitiful cry the bodies of several girls ooze out of their prisons and transform into streams of energy that flows into the demons mouth, causing the blood to seep back into the injury which then closes up, not even leaving a scar. "I live again!" cries the demon victoriously. Kagome gasps and points at the demon, "look the cuts completely gone." Inuyasha growls while Jin clenches his fists in frustration. The toad laughs and speaks to our heroes boastfully, "what are you all waiting for? For each cut you make I'll just take another soul." But the demons tirade is cut short as a loud splash draws everyone's attention to the far side of the room, there Nobunaga used his sword to release the princess from her liquid prison.

The black haired klutz leans over the object of his affection as she coughs up the liquid slime the swallowed while in her cell. The princess shoots up and embraces Nobunaga in a chaste hug, causing the vassal to blush profusely stuttering, "P-Princess Tsuyu." After a full minute like this Nobunaga returns the hug with great zeal, "I can now die without regret!" The toad demon then begins to stomp over to the hugging pair, "Get your hands off of my Princes, Urk!" The URK stems from Inuyasha walloping the demon over the head with the flat of his sword, "you've got nothing to say here pal." With a loud thud the toad lands on its butt and after a moment the toad opens its eyes, but instead of the sinister brown they are a simple blue. The toad then speaks but not with the deep froggy voice full of content and sinister intent, but a gental tenor filled with confusion as he takes in his surroundings. "P-princess Tsuyu, wh-what've I, where am I please tell me that this was not my doing?"

The princess eyes widen in familiarity, "that voice, it's the voice of my lord husband." Inuyasha scoffs, "well isn't that convenient?" Kagome stokes her chin thoughtfully, "that would mean the real lord is alive! I knew it!" The lord then continues his woeful tale. "It's like a nightmare, only I can't wake up. Somehow I knew, deep inside I realized what was happening and yet I was powerless to stop it. I-I wanted to but I couldn't." The lord then looks towards our heroes and speaks to them, "please kill me." This causes everyone to use the confused expletive of their choice. The lord then continues to plea with our heroes, "I don't think I have the strength to stop myself. Please kill me before it's too late!" Inuyasha smirks as his readies his blade for a strike, "Finally someone's making some sense. So do you want it in the gut, or do I take the head?" Both Jin and Kagome are surprised by the dog boy's eagerness to take someone's life, so the Oto-Yokai makes the first argument, "whoa wait a minute Fido, what about the lord?" Kagome nods in agreement, "he's right! Didn't you hear him there's a human in there." The Inu-hanyo just glances back at his teammates, "it's you guy's that didn't hear! He just asked me to kill him, didn't he?"

That's when Nobunaga surprises every one by stepping between Inuyasha and the frogified lord. "Sheath your blade Inuyasha please. Inside this monster the real lord's heart still beats!" Inuyasha then points his blade at Nobunaga, "move out of the way little man, or I'll kill you too!" Nobunaga flinches at the threat, "please don't", "then move you coward!" Nobunaga then regains his courage and stands up straight, "no I cannot, I will not let you kill him while the real lord's still in there. And even if he wasn't I can't approve of you taking a life. I realize that in this world it's crazy to feel this way, but I can't help it. I can't." Inuyasha then sheaths his blade with an angry scowl on his face. "Fine have it your way. I'll let you settle it yourself. The responsibility's all yours now." Inuyasha then sits down in the far corner in his room with a light pout on his face. Kagome and Jin both just smile. But then the moment changes again as the toad leaps back to his feet, his eyes and voice resuming their sinister nature. "Thank you for sparing me!" says the demon before skewering Nobunaga's shoulder again. Nobunaga stumbles forward and lands on his face. Causing the two women to fret over his fallen form, the princess calling out his name, "Nobunaga Nobunaga." Kagome turns towards the most irate member of the group, "Inuyasha do something!" The son of the Inu-no-Taisho just scowls at his human companion, "I'll help only if I can kill him." Jin simply growls at the stubbornness of his comrade, "ah, some help you are pal!"

Nobunaga draws everyone's attention back to him, "Kagome please take the princess and don't worry about me." Kagome nods grabs the princess hand and takes off down the hall. The toad begins to follow, but not before he's intercepted by Jin. "Not so fast you walkin' French dish you want them you gotta go through me!" The toad is happy to oblige as his tongue lashes out and swipes the sound demon aside knocking the wind out of him. The toad dashes after the two women and while Jin recovers from his fall Inuyasha begins to speak to Nobunaga. "Well how about it? You want I should kill him yet?" Nobunaga groans painfully before answering, "no, killing." Inuyasha scoffs, "idiot!" Jin shakes his head rapidly to remove the cobwebs then turns to his semi-canine companion, "we don't have time to discuss this Inuyasha, we've gotta' go now."

Down the hall the two women run as fast as their slender legs can carry them. Kagome turns to the little flea ridding on her shoulder. "There's gotta be something we can do to stop him." Myoga shouts to Kagome over the wind whipping over them, "monster or not a toad is still a toad, try something hot! Like hot water or something." This statement surprises the women enough to cause them to stop running. "Hot water?" "Yes distract the toad so the Lord can come out." Kagome scowls at the miniscule coward, "well were am I supposed to get hot water?" A loud stomping followed by the demons froggy voice crying "WAIIIT!" signals his sudden arrival, "He's coming!" So Kagome and the princess resume dashing down the halls while Kagome try's to think of a way to stop the toad. When suddenly an idea comes to her, "wait a minute, fire's hot!" Kagome then turns to the princess, "hey is there a torch or something around here?" The princess is unable to answer Kagome's question prompting the miko to think, (oh, man I wish Jin were here right now!)

But in the confusion the princess trips and falls allowing the demon to draw ever closer, "Wait I want to eat both of you!" pressed for options Kagome stands next to the princess wondering what to do, when from the opposite direction comes Nobunaga's monkey carrying a small torch. "Ah, fire! What a smart monkey you are." But her smile quickly falls once she realizes how tiny the flame is, (if only it weren't so small!) It's at this moment the toad catches up to the two women and knocks Kagome down with his tongue, Kagome lands on the ground face first the contents of her backpack spilling on the floor, as the toad looms over the two women. But their salvation is at hand as Inuyasha, being faster than Jin, arrives at the scene leaping over the toad and landing in front of the women. "You still in there toad lord?" Taunts the half demon, "Inuyasha," but whatever she had to say goes unheard as Inuyasha prepares his blade to cut the demon down. "Sorry Kagome, mercy is a luxury that we can't afford right now!" That's when Kagome gets a brilliant idea, "luxury like, hairspray!" And low and behold, there amongst Kagome's things is a can of hairspray, (this could work I could still save him!) Inuyasha charges the toad demon his blade ready to run him through, "this is the only way!" When Kagome says the magic words, "SIT BOY!" with another flash and crash, Inuyasha ends up tasting the floor, with Kagome at the ready behind him, and in a true Macgyver moment, cobbles together a flame thrower out of a small gas lantern and a can of hairspray.

A cloud of flame that would make Jin proud washes over the demon causing it to glow with an unnatural light, and after a few seconds, the toad and the lord become separated the former trying to run back down the hall, "It's getting away!" yells Inuyasha as he pries himself out of the floor. But the demon is halted in its tracks by the second good demon, "oh no it's not!" Yells Jin, once again the boy turned demon begins acting on instinct and grabs the circular belt buckle off of his waist, and then forces it into the demons body, with a bright light the circle expands and grows until it's the diameter of a Taiko drum, and then with a flourish Jin draws his drumsticks raises them above his head and shouts at the top of his lungs, "_Kaen Renda_!" then he begins to strike the circle with all of his might, each time causing a wave of pure sound to flow through the demons body, in turn causing extreme pain, while everyone around Jin must cover their ears, Inuyasha and Myoga through the pure sound waves, the two women and the monkey due to the pure volume of the attack. After the 30th beat Jin pulls back both his hands and with a loud yell strikes the circle with both mallets, then the demon explodes into what could best be described as green confetti, which with the jewel shard begins to drift gently to the ground. Jin's hand then snaps forward and catches the shard on its way down.

That's when Nobunaga decides to join the group as he runs up holding his injured side. "My friends!" Nobunaga then grabs Jin's and then Inuyasha's hands shaking them both eagerly, "you did it you drove out the demon and saved the lord. You had me worried for a moment there, but you all came through, thank you!" "Nobunaga" says the princes as she stands back up, "yes my princess?" asks Nobunaga eagerly expecting a declaration of love, or at least a hug, but to his face-fault inducing chagrin the princess embraces her husband "You saved my husband, thank you!" The lord himself is a simple looking man with beady eyes and long black hair tied up in a long top knot, "my princess, I'm sorry for worrying you." "Oh, m'lord. You haven't changed a bit! It is as if you've never left." Behind the happy couple Kagome simply shrugs with a small smile, "well he seems to be a nice guy."

The following morning the jewel hunters and the clumsy vassal, sit on a small cliff with the three hunters sitting on a blanket and with Nobunaga staring listlessly at the palace. Kagome then tries to start a conversation with the klutz, "with the toad gone all the remaining girls were safe isn't that great?" But Nobunaga simply sits there staring at the castle, Kagome continues to try and get their new friend to speak to them, "oh come on Nobunaga, say something please?" Inuyasha scoffs at Nobunaga's depressed state, "Idjit, even though he practically got himself killed, he went out of his way to save his only romantic rival." This prompts Nobunaga to say something, "that's me alright. Amari Nobunaga world's biggest "Idjit" and fool." Inuyasha just sighs, "you are an idjit. But you also saved a lot of live. So don't beat yourself up, there are plenty of people who'll do that for ya." Despite the brashness of this statement Nobunaga can't help but smile. "You know what, that does cheer me up." And so he begins to stroll away, but Inuyasha starts saying, "I wouldn't go that way," Kagome follows up with, "if I were," but the last part of the warning comes a little too late, as Nobunaga tumbles down a small hill, with Jin finishing the warning for his friends, "you." Kagome sighs as Nobunaga lays there twitching, "yup he's an idjit all right."

End chapter.

Next time: Shippo and the Thunder Brothers.


	10. Shippo and the Thunder Brothers

Again I don't own either Inuyasha or Kamen Rider Hibiki both of which belong to their respective creators.

Shippo and the Thunder brothers

Tick-Tock, tick-tock, the seconds on the timer tick away, "and three, two, one, there it's done." Says Kagome as she turns the alarm off. With chopsticks in hand Inuyasha digs into the cup of instant noodles with the expected amount of gusto. "Not bad, not bad" mumbles the half breed through mouthfuls of noodles. Kagome stares at the dog boy with a deadpanned expression. "Yeah the next best thing to sliced bread." Following a particularly loud slurp Inuyasha looks up at his companions. "I could see how this "instant" stuff could catch on, why aren't you guys digging in?" Jin looks up from the Ranma manga he brought with him and stares at Inuyasha. "Yeah, hey kibble breath speaking of digging, have you noticed," a pull out reveals the trio to be surrounded by hundreds of skeletons from some long ago battle, "that we are SURROUNDED BY CORPSES?" Kagome sits down on a rock with a small huff, "of course he didn't, he was too busy rummaging through _my_ backpack to realize we were sitting in an old battle field!"

Jin rolls his eyes, "I'm hungry he says, then he has the gall to expect us to eat _here_!" Kagome nods in agreement, "geez, even your blood sucking buddy has better manners than you." Myoga looks up from his own lunch, nibbling on a fish cake he "borrowed" from Inuyasha's lunch, "finally I've met someone with good taste who tastes good, by the conveniences of your era, such as your by-cycle and your instant food stuffs. Tell me have we started trading with other lands?" Kagome smiles at the astute observation of the little blood sucker. "Good observation Myoga! It figures that _you_ would notice." Jin pushes his glasses higher up his face and raises a finger into the air, officially entering "lecture mode". "The instant noodles were invented right here in Japan during the space age." Kagome nods mimicking her friends movements, "everybody eats them back home, but they were originally meant for astronauts in outer space." Both demons pause in their munching at the very unfamiliar word, "astro-nuts?" Jin scoffs, "no doofus astronauts, we've explored outer space." Kagome nudges Jin in the side, "hey, I guess they don't even know we've been to the moon." Inuyasha tilts his head to the side in confusion, "on a bicycle?" Kagome nudges the dog boy now, "no silly on a rocket of course." a still very confused Inuyasha asks, "and a rocket would be?" Jin smiles, "well their long," Kagome then says, "and their usually white," Jin, "and flames shoot out of the bottom," Kagome, "countdown to launch," and Jin finishes with both kids from the future pointing up to the sky, "Blastoff to infinity and beyond!"

It's then that both members of the future populous realize what they're doing and immediately return to their seats blushing furiously at their own excitement. Jin buries his face in his book, and mutters to himself, "Trust the dog to be more impressed by noodles then by space travel." Of course now the wheel of fate decides to take a turn for the worse for our heroes, and the sky suddenly darkens. Kagome looks around in surprise, "what's going on?" Jin leaps up from his seat the Onkaku in hand, "why'd it get so dark all of the sudden?" Inuyasha leaps up too, his hand on the Tetsusaiga, "something tells me its trouble!" from high in the air a booming voice rains down on our heroes, accompanied by a swirling vortex of blue flame, "YOU DOWN THERE! YOU POSSES THE SHARDS OF THE SARCRED SHIKON JEWEL!" The intense light of the flames force the intrepid trio to squint as they gazed up at the light show. "What's going on?" yells Jin over the roar of the flames. Kagome then comes up with an answer, "it's gotta be a demon." From his spot on Inuyasha's shoulder Myoga looks up into the flames, "I believe it's a fox." Inuyasha looks down at his vassal, "not likely."

Everyone tenses up ready to leap into action, as the flames begin to condense into a large ball, then with a loud pop and a cloud of smoke…..a big pink balloon thing with big googaly eyes appears. Everyone just stares at their "opponent" as it drifts down, its voice no longer booming or threatening, truth be told its fairly high pitched and goofy sounding. "The jewel or your life?" Inuyasha just growls angrily and pulls his hand back, and with a loud slap, the balloon creature pops, and zips around as the air rushes out of it. Then the thoroughly deflated balloon disappears with another pop and a cloud of blue flame, and out of the cloud tumbles, a little kid.

After landing on his face and pulling himself out of the ground the little boy, starts nursing a small bruise on his cheek. This is when everyone takes in the boy's appearance. The fellow is very small, probably barely coming up to either Jin's or Kagome's knees. His long orange hair, is done up is a large ponytail, while his bright green eyes are squinted in pain, as a couple tears drip down his round face. He is wearing a light blue shirt with leaf shaped patterns under an orange vest, while also wearing a pair of deep blue pants. But the most unusual features this kid has are that instead of feet he has two paws, and out of the seat of his pants comes a fluffy crème colored tail.

Needless to say our heroes are stunned, so stunned they can't even speak. This gives the little boy a chance to spring back onto his feet. Scowling angrily at our heroes "who dares to burst my bubble?" Inuyasha simply leans down grabs the boy by his tail and lifts him into the air. Jin gives the little demon the critical eye as he squirms and yells at the indignity of being picked up by his tail, "huh, feisty little fellow isn't he?" Inuyasha grunts his agreement, giving the boy his own critical eye, "looks like a badger, or maybe a squirrel." The boy stops his struggling and lifts himself up as much as he can to yell at Inuyasha's face, "I'm a fox you heathen!"

Kagome stares and stares at the little boy a small blush on her face and a strange twinkle in her eyes, at the sheer kawaii-ness of the scene, "a fox and he talks, how cool." Kagome uneasily shuffles over to Inuyasha and Jin, "say Inuyasha could you let me hold him when you're done?" Inuyasha spins around to face her, "do you mind? I'm trying to teach this brat a lesson."

Then suddenly with a loud pop, Inuyasha finds himself dragged to the ground, and the little fox boy in his hand had been replaced with an apparently very heavy statue. Everyone blinks in confusion, Jin stands in place scratching his head before asking, "Where'd that come from?" everyone attention is drawn to Kagome's stuff from the loud rattling/shifting noises. Kagome's head whips around and she starts running over to the supplies, "hey get outta my stuff!"

Indeed dear readers, the little fox boy had somehow managed to slip out of Inuyasha's grip and sneak over to Kagome's bag and immediately began to rummage through her stuff, various objects being flung out of the over-stuffed backpack, among them a camera, a mirror, a CD (coincidently the one Jin gave Kagome for her birthday), and a textbook. All these things went flying before the little guy finally found what he was looking for.

"I found it, the sacred jewel shards" clutching the bottle in his tiny hands the little fox leaps into the air calling back down at our heroes. "Our time together has been short but sweet! Farewell!" and in another swirl of blue flame the fox boy disappears. Kagome gasps in surprise "he's gone!" Jin shakes his head, "no it's impossible he's gotta be here somewhere we just need to know where to," Inuyasha holds his hand up to Jin signaling him to stop, and then points behind the two humans, both turn around and to their surprise a skull tries to scuttle away from the trio, a skull with a fluffy tail. Jin raises his eyebrow in confusion, and leans over to Inuyasha to whisper in his ear. "Does he honestly think we wouldn't notice that?" Inuyasha answers Jin's question by cracking his knuckles and marching over to the little fox.

There's a loud smack, and the next thing ya know the little fox boy is sitting on the ground with a pout on his face, having the large goose egg on his head being tended to by Kagome, "they always pick on the little guy.." the fox boy grumbles to himself. Jin kneels down trying to look as unthreatening as possible, "so kid why are you so determined to get the jewel?" The boy looks up from his pout to yell at Jin, "My name is not kid, its Shippo!" after that little Shippo quickly returns to his pout, "and I need it for my father. I need to get the shards of the jewel to avenge him." And right when Shippo says 'avenge' everyone reacts differently, Jin gets a far off, almost glazed look in his eye, while Kagome looks rather confused. "Whaddya mean avenge?" asks the girl, "your father was killed wasn't he?" Asks Jin.

Inuyasha gives an angry glare from across the way, holding the bottle with the shards in his hand, "Now I get it, he's not strong enough, so he needs the power of the jewel to take out his enemies." Kagome whirls around noticing Inuyasha holding the jewel bottle, "hey! What are you doing with those?" Shippo of course continues his little speech, "I am strong enough the take on any enemy – I merely wanted the jewel as a precaution." Of course two of the three weren't listening, because Inuyasha and Kagome were in another shouting match, "Mind telling me how the jewel happened to get into YOUR coat?" "I was protecting them, you gotta problem with that!" That's when Shippo decides to take his turn, "Hey you guys mind I'M doing the talking here!" "Yeah, let him finish guys." Inuyasha blinks confusedly at Jin, while Kagome gives a slight nod.

_Area Change_

We now find ourselves on a distant battle field, the sun mercilessly beating down, with two armies of Samurai ready to fight to the death. As the two groups of men prepare to charge, there is a roll of thunder and thick black clouds blot out the sun. The men surprised by the sudden change in the weather look up and one of them, an archer, notices something very disconcerting, "Look something approaches." He shouts, and boy is he right. High in the sky among the clouds and the lightening, sitting on a black storm cloud are two beings, one of them, a young man with orange and grey armor, his dark skin complementing his vicious red eyes, and his long black hair flowing behind him in the whipping winds, in his hand a long glaive with a blade, as jagged as a bolt of lightning crackling with electricity. But that's not the strangest part; next to the man on the cloud is a humanoid lizard, thing, with black and blue armor, his pale skin on his almost completely bald head, save for literally two or three hairs, shining brightly when a lightning bolt sizzles past.

The human looking one flashes a cruel smile the fangs in his mouth obvious, "The time to hunt has come Manten." The lizard also smiles cruelly, "Indeed brother Hiten let us start!" Now the man, Hiten, leaps off of the cloud, a pair of blazing wheels attaching to his ankles, allowing him to soar next to his brother. Hiten points his glaive and shouts, "GOD OF THUNDER!" with crack a bolt of lightning streaks from his glaive and strikes the ground in the middle of one of the samurai armies, the ground explodes sending debris flying anywhere, the lucky are incinerated by the lighting, the unlucky are crushed or electrocuted to death. With one half of the army destroyed Hiten turns his horrible fury on the other half, "witness our power!" he shouts throwing his glaive to the ground, the blade drives itself into the soil, and after a few brief seconds of silence, there's and even larger electric explosion quickly and easily obliterating the remaining men in the first army.

On the far side of the battlefield the remaining army stair in awe and horror at the destruction before them. One of the men then speaks, "they annihilated the enemy with a single strike of lightening." One of the other men then speaks, "do these beasts claim to be our allies?" Manten hearing this slowly turns towards the other army, with a vicious smirk he then says "you entertain thoughts of being _our_ allies, don't make me laugh." With that Manten opens his reptilian mouth wide as an orb of yellow electricity begins to build in his jaws, with the bang of a cannon shot a beam of pure electric energy plows into the opposite army, the poor fools don't even have time to scream as they are disintegrated.

The two brothers fly over their carnage surveying the damage, fire and charred bodies litter the field, two armies of nearly a thousand men each reduced to ashes or briquettes in mere seconds, and not a single trace of life is to be found. Hiten turns to his brother with a contented sigh, "ah, that was certainly entertaining." Manten smiles at his brother, before combing through his few remaining hairs with a fine toothed comb, and saying, "yes indeed, humans make such pitiful warriors." Hiten looks off into the distance, his cruel smirk still parting his lips, "but the day is still young, and I am feeling quite restless." Then pointing his thumb up to his face Hiten continues, "With this Shikon jewel shard imbedded in my forehead I have power to spare."

Manten smiles at his sibling, "So true dear brother!" Hiten then zips in next to his brother's cloud, "just imagine what powers we could have with even more jewels!" Manten's wicked grin widens even more at the thought, "oh yes dear brother, if we collected all the shards, we would be invincible! We must search amongst the beasts, and relinquish them of their precious treasures. As we did with our friend the fox!" as Manten finishes his thought his hands drift to his wide waist and the soft fox pelt tied neatly around it.

_Area change_

Meanwhile back with Kagome and her friends, the quartet, now including Shippo, have moved on from their resting place, and are now in the middle of a lush forest. Kagome pedaling her bike, with Shippo sitting on top of her large backpack, and not far behind them is Jin keeping up with his Skateboard, his eyes still kind of glazed, Kagome of course being the friendly person she was kept the conversation going with Shippo. "So wait, these guys murdered your father to get his shard of the Shikon Jewel, but why'd he have it in the first place?" "I couldn't say – all I know is that the Thunder Brothers steal shards from other demons." Jin finally chooses to come out of his minor funk, looking towards the little fox, "Thunder Brothers?" Shippo nods, "It's a nickname they earned because of their thunder and lightning attacks!"

Jin ponders this for a moment, before yelling up at Inuyasha, "Hey Myoga you ever hear of these guys?" The flea nods, "he must be talking about Hiten and Manten, and if even half the rumors are true, those two are indeed evil incarnate." Inuyasha just scoffs, as per usual, "big deal, all I gotta do is defeat the brothers and I'll walk away with all their jewel shards." Shippo looks up and gives the Hanyo a sarcastic, "yeah and one day will walk on the moon!" Before making his point, "you're no match for the evil Thunder Brothers! You're only a half demon. I can smell the human on you, and your quiet friend back there." Thumbing towards Jin as he says that.

"This is a problem between us demons. It's got nothing to do with _half_-breeds such as yourself, so stay out of it!" Kagome scowls at the little fox, "hey now that's no way to speak to Inuyasha." Jin nods, "yeah, we're the only ones who get to riff on the mutt." Kagome gives Jin a minor glare, "that's not what I meant." Of course Inuyasha decides to drive the point home by giving the little guy a solid knock on the head followed by an impressive noogie. "Hey go easy on him!" Yells Kagome, Jin quickly follows with "yeah he's only a little guy."

Inuyasha scowls at his friends, "well someone's gotta teach him a lesson!" Shippo begins to bow to Inuyasha, "oh yes, I'm very sorry! Please forgive me! In fact as a token of my apology, I want you to have this!" The next thing anybody knows is Inuyasha's hands are pinned to the ground by another goofy looking statue which Shippo quickly slaps a sticker on. "Ha, ha, now you're stuck under that statue until you can get the spell scroll peeled off!"

Kagome and Jin shoot the little fox a stern look, "stop acting so childish Shippo, and take the spell off of him!" Shippo just huffs at Kagome's demand, "come on Fido that thing can't possibly be that heavy." All the while Inuyasha is putting every ounce of strength he has into trying to stand up, trying being the operative word in this sentence. "I'd like to see one of you try to free yourself."

"I don't like playing tricks on women if I can avoid it. So don't hold this against me Kagome." Shouts the little fox, leaping towards Kagome, of course the little guy is not much bigger than a teddy bear, so Kagome is able to easily catch him in mid-flight, "a little respect please!"

Shippo manages to wriggle out of Kagome's grasp and startles her with a wave of fox fire. The little fox lands gracefully on the ground clutched tightly in his tiny hand is the bottle containing the jewel shards. "Thanks! I'll use this to lure out the Thunder Brothers." The fox demon scampers off with Kagome shouting angrily "That little dog! He's got our shards again! Get back here you mangy mutt!" before she takes off after him. "Kagome wait up!" Jin calls after her, before, "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Jin pauses in mid stride almost losing his balance before turning back to the still pinned Inuyasha. "I'm going after Kagome what's it look like?" Inuyasha shakes his head fervently, "oh, no you're not your staying here and helping me get this thing off!" Jin sighs, "Alright I suppose so, besides how much trouble could that little guy cause anyway."

_**Zone Shift**_

Meanwhile admiring his reflection in the surface of a nearby lake, sits Manten his reptilian skin gleaming in the sun, "my what a pleasing visage." The thunder demon continues to preen himself combing the few hairs on his head, "but with a few more hairs I could attract the ladies as easily as brother Hiten does." The lizard's narcissistic monologue would have continued if the sound of rustling in the nearby reeds didn't attract his attention. When out of the tall grasses pops Shippo still on the run from Kagome, "heh, heh, they'll never find my now!" but Shippo's relief is cut short when he almost runs straight into Manten.

"Well what a pleasant surprise, it's the son of that flea-bitten fox." Shippo can only tremble in fear as Manten looms over him. Manten then brings his hands to his wide waist bringing Shippo's attention to the pelt he's wearing. "You like my fur coat; it's just like your father's! Hya, ha, ha!" At this point Shippo's fear turns to anger, "you monster you'll pay for what you did! Let me at you!" Shippo shouts as he leaps towards the thunder lizard, but this proves ineffective as Manten knocks the little fox back to the ground. When Shippo hits the little bottle containing our hero's shards falls to the ground with a clink. Upon seeing the shards Manten's eyes widen with greed, "oh, shards of the Shikon jewel!"

Manten scowls at Shippo, "now hand the shards over like a good little lad, or else!" Manten emphasizes his threat by charging his thunder breath, the electricity crackling menacingly. Shippo frozen with fear stares at his eminent doom, when with a twang, an arrow drives itself through and wedges itself in Manten's snout breaking his concentration and dissipating the attack. Kagome standing a distance away from the lizard and the fox stares at her bow in surprise, "wow I can't believe I hit him!"

"K-Kagome!" Shippo shouts very surprised at seeing this girl that he just robbed helping him. While Manten claws at his face, "my beautiful nose." Kagome then cocks another arrow ready to let it fly at a moments notice, "don't move an inch reptile! Shippo bring the jewel over here quickly!" The little fox begins to run over to Kagome. "STOP, I must have those shards!" Yells Manten, but its then that Kagome notices something, 'he has two shards in his forehead, and if I can hit him there I can bring him down!'

The arrow soars towards the rushing thunder demon, but misses by scant inches. Manten howls in pain and clutches his head, before two of his three remaining hairs fall out. "MY HAIR! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!" Screams Manten before charging up his thunder blast, "we've gotta run!" Shippo yells over the thunders din. "That's the attack that killed my dad!" With a loud bang the thunder ball soars through the air, Kagome and Shippo throw themselves to the ground at the last possible moment, with Kagome knocking herself out on the hard ground. Manten snickers to himself "heh, heh, that'll stop them for a while." Shippo rushes up to the unconscious girl trying to rouse her, "Kagome, you've gotta get up." In the distance Shippo can her Manten stomping his way over to them, and does the one thing he can do. When Manten arrives Shippo is long gone "so the little fox has escaped has he?" It's now that Manten gets a good look at Kagome, "oh, she looks good enough to eat!" and knowing demons as well as we do now we know that the lizard could very easily mean this literally.

A short distance away Shippo who's taking cover in some tall grass, shivering in panic. When suddenly a loud whoosh draws his gaze skyward, there high in the air, is Manten sitting on his storm cloud, with an unconscious Kagome. "He has Kagome! I've gotta go rescue her." With a depressed sigh, the fox sits on a nearby stump. "But how? I don't stand a chance against the thunder brothers. Unless?"

_**Zone change**_

Back with the boys, Myoga is trying to pull Shippo's seal off of the statue with no effect at all. "It's no use milord. I cannot remove the spell scroll." The combined efforts of the three men in the jewel hunting party showed little progress, Jin even tried changing into his demon form and even with his enhanced strength he and Inuyasha had barely managed to lift the statue and inch off the ground. Jin at this moment had returned to human form sat on a nearby rock kneading his back, "yeah, man that thing ain't moving." Inuyasha growls angrily before struggling some more, "that little runt is gonna pay for this!" "Aw take is easy on him mutt, I bet he's an okay little guy." Inuyasha glares at Jin, "look I gotta ask you, why are you defending the runt?" Jin sighs, "well it's because…" "JIN, INUYASHA!" both pause in their conversation and look over for there is Shippo standing on Kagome's bag, "I'll help you on one condition, and that is Inuyasha won't hit me anymore."

Of course now the boys notice that someone is missing, someone really important, "Hey, why didn't Kagome come back with you?" Growls Inuyasha, sounding a little more irate than usual. "Will you promise me or won't you?" Asks the little fox, "okay he won't, now let him go and tell us what happened." Accepting Jin's offer Shippo hops down and peels the seal off of the statue and in a puff of smoke the stone shrinks down to the size of a peanut, which Shippo then deftly catches, and stuffs into his robe. "Alright I'll tell you where she is." THWACK! The next thing anybody knows Inuyasha has plowed the little guy to the ground, "I thought we had a promise!" "Yeah man your making me look like a liar!" "Oh yeah, that reminds me, I think this little punk has something of ours!" With that Inuyasha lifts the little guy by his tail turns him upside down and begins to shake, and out of Shippo's robes falls a number of things, some acorns, a few leaves, a top, the statue, and finally the little bottle with the jewel shards.

Inuyasha leans down and picks up the bottle. "Thank goodness it's still safe." Jin nods, "yes, yes that's all very well and good but what about Kagome?" Shippo squirms around in Inuyasha's grasp, "that's what I've been trying to tell you! She's been kidnapped by the Thunder Brothers! And you two need to go after her!" Jin is the first to panic, "you mean the two monsters that killed your dad now have Kagome!" Inuyasha glairs at the fox boy, "and what did you do while this was happening? Hide in the bushes?" Shippo does his best to hide his shame at this comment, before yelling at Inuyasha. "Why are you pinning the blame on me? She's _you're_ woman you should at least do _some_ of the rescuing." Both boys go red at this statement, for their own reasons, "SHE'S NOT MY/HIS WOMAN!" Both boys shout simultaneously.

Inuyasha then drops Shippo before turning around to hide his blush, "but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to save her." "Damn right we're gonna save her so let's stop flapping our gums and get moving." "We will only after the brat gives me an apology and prepares a hot bath for me tonight." Jin gives and exasperated groan, before pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off another headache. Now Shippo would shout something like 'no way' or 'forget it' at this point but Myoga interjects, "Shippo it's probably best to do as the master wishes, time is wasting and the girl is in danger."

"Grrr, why do I always have to hand out the apologies?" Growls Shippo, "but I can't rescue Kagome on my own." So Shippo steel's himself swallows his pride, and throws himself into a deep bow, "I'm sorry!" Shippo's apology is punctuated by a very familiar, to us, high pitched whine, "Henshin!" following a flash of purple fire light and a wave of heat, Shippo looks up surprised to see Jin replaced with an armored warrior and Inuysahsa holding Kagome's bike and bag over his shoulder. Jin kneels down and places and kind hand on the fox boy's shoulder, "apology accepted." Inuyasha gives a stern nod before marching off Jin close behind him, "let's get moving runt we've got a lot of work to do." Shippo just stares at the two managing to must up a very surprised, "huh!"

_**Zone Shift**_

Deep within the foothills surrounded by a thick fog bank sits the surprisingly unassuming compound that the thunder brothers call home. And within its walls something sinister is going on. We find Manten tending to a large pot its purple contents bubbling loudly, while nearby the unconscious Kagome begins to regain consciousness. "Ooh, where am I?" Manten turns hearing Kagome stirring, "ah awoken have you my fair maiden?" Kagome now fully awake can't help but sweat nervously at Manten's hungry grin, "Why're you looking at me like that." Manten responds by running his tongue over his sharp teeth, "well it has been said that the flesh and blood of young maidens does marvels for hair growth. Some even call it the wonder potion of the century!" Kagome can't help but yell at the potential indignity of it all, "I'd rather be eaten alive then boiled down into hair tonic!" Manten begins panic, "ahh, shh! Please be silent if my brother hears you he might just fulfill your wish."

There is suddenly a loud crash as the door is smashed to pieces, and Manten his fist outstretched stands there, with a lovely and obviously demonic woman by his side, if her pointy ears and red eyes have anything to say about it. "I thought I heard voices, back so soon Manten?" Asks the elder thunder brother, his evil smirk never leaving his face. While his bed mate crosses her arms under her almost bare chest, save for the snake draped over her shoulders, and shoots Manten an unimpressed glance, "this thing is your brother?"

Nervous sweat begins to bead on Manten's large forehead, "Hiten, how good to see you!" Hiten's gaze then lazily drifts over to Kagome, "who's she? What's she doing here?" Manten takes a small step to the side placing him slightly between Kagome and his brother, "I found her first, she's mine!" Hiten gives an uninterested chuckle at his brother's behavior. "No need to worry I have no use for her. Not when I have _this_ little vixen." Smiles Hiten while giving his bed mate a semi-affectionate squeeze.

'Well at least this brother _looks_ human. Maybe I can talk my way out of this!' Were the thoughts in Kagome's head, while the brothers continued their conversation. "Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, how did you fair in your search for more jewel fragments?" Now Manten is sweating bullets, "Ah, yes of course. I'm sorry dear brother I found one but I'm afraid I lost it." Hiten's hands tighten into fists, as the air begins to fill with static electricity, "you lost it? Don't tell me you were so interested in this woman so much so that you forgot all about THE PRECSOUS JEWEL SHARDS?" Hiten's anger finally reaches the boiling point before flinging his right hand back so the palm faces the woman next to him. Her surprised look is the last thing anybody sees before a blinding flash of lightning followed by a deafening clap of thunder, dull everyone's senses, and once the electricity clears, the demon woman's blackened corps falls to the ground with a thud.

Now Manten is completely terrified of his brother's wrath, "Please brother forgive me!" Manten's angry and disappointed scowl deepens, "you bring NOTHING but shame to this family, if you weren't my younger brother I would have done you in _long_ ago." And through all of this Kagome stares in abject horror, 'then again looks can be deceiving.'

_Time Skip_

Sometime later after being filled in by his brother Hiten has come to a decision. "So that Shippo tyke has our jewel shard huh?" With that he turns around and prepares to leave. "Are you going after him brother?" Hiten turns around and glairs at his brother again, "of course I am, and you're coming with me!" Seeing as both the brothers are preoccupied with their argument Kagome tries to slip away. Of course Manten won't have any of that, "where do you think you're going?" Shouts Manten, while swinging a giant meat cleaver over his head, Kagome lets off a panicked scream before dodging to the side, the blade missing by scant inches. "Hey! Watch where you're swinging that thing will ya!" Manten hefts the blade back up, "Oh, a thousand pardons. I meant to make it quick, so you wouldn't have to suffer. And there's no sense in delaying, since I wouldn't want the main ingredient for my hair potion escaping."

"Wait! You don't wanna kill me!" Manten blinks confusedly, "and why not?" Kagome's gaze shifts around nervously, "uh, 'cuz, you won't be able to find them without me!" Manten gasps, "I, I won't?" Kagome's lips curve up in a clever smile, 'there really is one born every minute, now that I've convinced the dumb one, all I gotta do now is trick the other brother, yeah I can do this.'

"Are you two familiar with Inuyasha? The strong, brave, and handsome warrior? " Hiten scoff's, "him strong? That Inuyasha is only a half demon." Kagome continues regardless, "but he is strong, he's defeated all kinds of monsters single handed, not to mention his powerful comrade." Hiten raises and eyebrow, "what comrade?" "Why only the super powerful fire demon that travels with us of course. Working together they've managed to collect most of the jewel fragments." Manten gasps again, "you're kidding!"

'There you go girl, that got their attention!' Hiten sits next to Kagome glaring at her, "are you lying?" Kagome manages to conjure up a smug grin, "why would I lie about 'em, the boys are madly in love with me. If you tell them that you have me captive I have no doubt my lovely boys will hand over the jewels to ensure my safety." Mentally adding, 'well at least Jin would.' Hiten grabs Kagome by the ascot on her uniform and pulls her up to her feet, "Wench! You will take us to these lovers of yours at once. But if you're lying, you'll suffer the same fate as she." Referring to his dead lover, "and I doubt you'd enjoy being fried to a crisp." Kagome can't help but scowl, 'I bet this creep would enjoy doing it to.'

_**Zone Change**_

Meanwhile not too far away, Kagome's friends managed to cover a surprising amount of ground in a short amount of time. Shippo shouting his little head off as the wind whistles in his ears, the little tyke taking a seat in the basket of Kagome's bike with Inuyasha hauling it over his shoulder.

Shippo can't help but shout, as Inuyasha soars through the air with each incredible leap, Jin following as close as he can. Inuyasha shouts over the whistling winds. "What's the matter Shippo? Not afraid of heights are you? I could always take you back if your frightened." Shippo calls back to Inuyasha, "I'm not afraid! I'm going to save Kagome and avenge my father! You and your friend better be as strong as you say you are! Those Thunder Brothers have jewels in their foreheads to make them powerful!"

Inuyasha comes to a stop on top of a tall rock with a chuckle, "that will only make defeating them more enjoyable." Meanwhile down on the ground Jin comes to a stop huffing and puffing doubled over holding a stitch on his side, he calls up to Inuyasha his voice breathy and exhausted, "hey, huh, Inuyasha, we better hurry before these guys do something to Kagome!" Inuyasha calls back down to the sound demon, "I'm sure she can handle herself. She's prob'ly got them cleaning their cave." All the while Myoga is on Inuyasha's other shoulder sweating nervously adding his input on the boys conversation, "we can only hope. But if the rumors are to be believed the Thunder Brothers do not keep pretty young ladies for long before devouring them." Needless to say this does nothing for Jin's nerves.

Or Shippo's for that matter, "devouring them? Inuyasha do you suppose Kagome is…" Inuyasha cuts Shippo's question off, "get real. Didn't you hear him – he said "pretty" young ladies!" Seeing as Jin was too busy breathing to rebuff that statement Shippo does it for him, "YEAH! She _is_ pretty _and_ brave and smart!" Shippo tugs at his hair in despair, "this is all my fault! She's probably being eaten alive as we speak!" Myoga tries to get a word in edgewise here, "me thinks perhaps it's not too late"

Of course the little flea goes on being ignored, and Shippo and Inuyasha continue their conversation. "Inuyasha! If it's not too much trouble could we continue the search? We might be able to get to Kagome before the Thunder Brothers get hungry!" "What's the rush? I tell ya she ain't pretty so they're definitely not gonna go for her!" Shippo starts tugging at his hair again, "she;s going to come back and haunt me for this, I've heard the legends and I know how it works!" Inuyasha growls "QUIT NAGGING, I'm going all right! Stop yapping at me and just point the way to the evil brothers!"

Now before the conversation got any more animated, Inuyasha's statement jinxes the team in the worst way. A bolt of lightning soars down from above blowing the rock Shippo and Inuyasha are on into pieces, throwing the two to the ground. Jin manages to rush over to the two of them, right when another bolt of lightning lances down from the sky, sending debris flying everywhere, thankfully Inuyasha grabs Shippo and leaps out of the way landing next to Jin. The three look up and hovering high above them looking all the more menacing with thunder clouds behind him is Hiten. "Very impressive maneuver, dodging my lightning bolt, especially in light of your dull and uninspired conversation just now." Hiten shoulders his polearm glaring down at the three demons boys, "You must be the reputed Inuyasha himself. And you must be the Jin character I've heard so much about." Myoga narrows his gaze as he stares upward, "Master Inuyasha! That's Hiten, the elder of the Thunder Brothers!"

Shippo leaps onto Inuyasha's shoulder and yells up at the evil thunder demon. "Where's Kagome!" Then Jin joins in on the shouting, "Yeah what've you done with her?" Manten snickers at their concern, "don't despair, we have done nothing to her—as of yet. MANTEN!" "Coming, brother!" Manten floats by on his cloud, "behold!" Manten reaches into his cloud and out pops Kagome, none the worse for the wear, as one could be being kidnapped by demons. "Jin, Inuyasha!" Inuyasha jerks in surprise, "Kagome!" Shippo tumbles off of Inuyasha's shoulder landing on the ground with a thud. Both Inuyasha and Jin immediately have some of their fears alleviated by the girls appearance, 'at least they didn't hurt her yet.' Both boys think at the exact same time.

Hiten chuckles sinisterly, "judging by your reactions it seems the girl spoke the truth! Now hand over the fragments of the shikon jewel to me," lightning starts to surge out of Hiten's body adding to the intimidation factor, "or you'll never see your lover alive again!" Both boys become stunned at that declaration, "see my lover?" Kagome gives a frustrated sigh and mumbles to the side, "some people just can't take a joke." A very deadpanned Inuyasha tries to make sense of all this, "there must be some kind of misunderstanding. Now let me get this straight you and me, or you and him," pointing towards Jin at the him, "are supposed to be _lovers_!" Kagome yells back down to Inuyasha, "this is no time to get all shy!" Manten turns to her and gives her a grin, "you little vixen I _knew_ you were fibbing." Kagome just smiles sheepishly, and Inuyasha begins to yell up to Kagome again. "You actually think I'd hand over the shards as a ransom to get you back!" "Of course you would, 'cuz that's what a lover would do!" "But we ain't lovers! And without any love the whole argument falls apart!" And as for Jin, well, he just stands there probably with a very glazed look on his face, beneath the helmet.

"So now some little gems are more important to ya than me! How dare you say that, after al we've been through together! In the meantime you'd better admit to yourself how much you really love me!" Hiten gives an annoyed growl, "I believe I've heard my fill. It's clear that you two do indeed have some jewels for us. JEWELS THAT WILL BE MINE!" Hiten charges down his wheels blazing brightly. Inuyasha draws the Tetsusaiga, the blade quickly changing into its true form, "not in my lifetime, pal!" Hiten then launches his God of Thunder attack, the lightening smacking into the Tetsusaiga, quickly followed by his polearm. "Hah! No one can withstand my attacks for long." Inuyasha groans as he strains to push Hiten back.

"Kiboujutsu Onibi!" the now familiar purple stream of flames surge forward, as Jin finally clears his mental block, and leaps to his friends aid. The attack is enough to distract Hiten so Inuyasha can push the elder brother away. Hiten comes to a graceful stop several feet in the air. "You have power, but no style. This should be an interesting battle!" Inuyasha and Jin both glair up at Hiten both once again thinking the same thing, 'and hopefully your last!'

There you go folks a new chapter at last, to prove I'm not dead. Jumps up on desk and does a jig to prove a point. Any who I dedicate this chapter to my kohai, Dibrave who more or less gave me the kick in the ass I needed to finish this, and I promise that the next update, no matter which story it's for will not take as long as this.


	11. Phantom Showdown

Kamen rider Hibiki and Inuyasha are both the properties of their respective owners. I'm merely writing for fun, not profit.

"Hello" speech

'_hello_' thought

"**Hello**"Techniques

When we last left our heroes they had met the little fox demon Shippo, who on a self imposed mission of vengeance, stole the shards from Inuyasha and the gang, hoping to use them to defeat his father's killers, the infamous thunder brothers. One thing led to another and we now find Kagome in the hands of the demons, with her friends having to save her.

Inuyasha and The Power of Pure Sound: The Phantom Showdown, The Thunder Brothers Vs. Tetsusaiga and the Ongeki bo Rekka

Despite the earlier confusion the battle was joined, Hiten making the first move, charging the wheels on his feet blazing, his glaive brought to bear. Thankfully Inuyasha's reflexes were as fast as ever. The hanyo drew the Tetsusaiga blocking the thrust. Lightning begins to surge around the two combatants.

"Hah! No one can withstand my attacks for long." Grins Hiten, but he's seemed to underestimate Inuyasha, as with one mighty heave, and an equally mighty grunt, Inuyasha throws Hiten back. The thunder demon stabilizes himself before laughing.

"You may have power but no style. This should be an interesting battle" '_and hopefully your last._' Grows Inuyasha to himself.

Lightning continues to shoot through the sky as Hiten lords over everyone on the ground.

"You wish to draw out this game, I see. Fine! I shall relish you prolonged suffering! Then I shall move onto your companions, seeing as they seem to be willing to let you die first!" It's true neither Jin nor Shippo have yet to make a move.

"Any time you feel like jumping in you guys I'd really appreciate it!" The dog boy shouts up to the other two.

"Well what am I supposed to do, my attacks aren't exactly long range, and he's just a kid." Jin shouts back.

"GRRR! Whatever, I've heard similar threats from a number of poor fools whose memories I keep alive by dancing on their tombstones, and I've beaten them all by myself!"

"Ha! In your dreams! Enough delay! Time to meet your "unfortunate" demise!" Shouts Hiten before rushing at Inuyasha again. The dog boy leaps out of the way, but Hiten spins around trusting his glaive. Inuyasha again brings up Tetsusaiga catching Hiten's glaive between its points.

"Enjoy your last moments of life!" Hiten shouts, and more lightning emerges from the glaive getting dangerously close to Inuyasha.

'_One touch of this lightning, and I'm a goner!_' Inuyasha despite all his bravado knows for a fact that he was in a very serious situation.

Meanwhile unnoticed by anyone else on the battlefield little Shippo has snuck off from Jin's side.

"Hiten's busy I'm certain Inuyasha can hold him off. Meanwhile I'll find a way to save Kagome!"

Kagome at this time is still upon the cloud with Manten.

"Inuyasha be careful!" the calls down to the ground.

"Hiten! Give him a send off that is unrivaled! I'll lend my assistance!" Manten calls down as he begins to charge his thunder breath attack.

"No fair! That's two against one, and Jin can't hit you up here!" Thinking fast Kagome gives Manten a good hard shove, actually managing to tip him off the cloud. Manten can only scream in surprise as he tumbles through he air, landing with a solid thud, leaving a deep crater.

"Hah, there's one down!" cheers Kagome, right before the cloud she's riding on disappears. Sending her tumbling through the air too.

"KAGOME!" three voices shout at once, Jin and Shippo make a run for the falling girl while Inuyasha gets blocked by Hiten.

"A true warrior never puts a woman before a battle!" Growls the thunder demon, swinging his glaive through the air.

"Kagome! Hold on! I'll come for you as soon as I've finished him off!" Inuyasha manages to yell over the din of thunder.

"Well hurry, 'cause gravity isn't exactly on my side here!" She yells back, before bouncing off of Manten, cushioning, the fall.

"Well at least the fall didn't kill me." Kagome moans as she rubs her sore behind, before the reptilian brother somehow manages to picks himself up.

"No, but I might!" Manten growls through clenched teeth.

"I thought you were dead!"

"You little wench!"

Kagome stands up and tries to make a run for it, but she trips and falls back to the ground. With Manten looming over her all seems lost, until…

"Time to use my **Fox Magic!**" Shouts Shippo throwing a top at Manten, the little toy lands on the lizards near bald head spinning quickly. But suddenly it begins to grow bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until the top is about the size of a water tower forcing Manten to the ground.

That's when Jin managed to catch up to the little fox, '_Well that's interesting._'

"Get away while you can, Kagome!" Shippo calls down to the only female in the group.

"No arguments here!" She shouts back up.

Jin reaches down the incline of the crater pulling Kagome up. "Nice move down there!" Praised Kagome as she dusts her skirt off.

"Yeah the big lug didn't know what hit him!"

The little fox boy blushes at the praise, "ahh it was nothin'."

"It's far too early to celebrate." Says Myoga from his place on Shippo's shoulder. "Shippo's so called fox magic is all about illusion!"

"Looks pretty real to me!" Says Kagome as the glances back down at the struggling Manten.

"Yeah I'd say he's not getting up soon." Follows Jin.

Back in the pit, Manten continues to groan in pain as the top continues to spin, of course Myoga was right, for as the top begins to slow down it also begins to shrink. It shrinks and slows till its back to its normal size and has lost enough momentum to fall off of Manten's head.

The thunder demon stands up, angrily crushing the toy in his hands.

"Curses that fox tyke will pay for his stupid tricks!"

Manten would have ranted further, if he didn't notice the last hair on his head drift down in front of him.

"No! My beautiful hair! Gone! It's all gone!" moans Manten as he rubs his now completely bald scalp, before exploding.

"EVERY LAST ONE OF MY HAIRS HAS FALLEN OUT!" Screams Manten before shooting his lightning breath into the air, the concentrated blast of electric energy begins to rain down, Jin picking up both Shippo and Kagome, before taking cover behind a nearby rock.

"YOU'VE PLUCKED MY LAST STRANDS OF HAIR!" Manten continues to freak, his lighting blasts destroying almost everything around him.

Behind the rock, Jin uses his armored body to shield his two friends as best as he can from the shrapnel shooting through the air.

"Looks like we've added fuel to the proverbial fire!"Kagome manages to shout over the din of thunder.

"Yeah, but what are we going to do now? I doubt this guy's gonna' calm down any time soon." Says Jin.

Manten has somehow managed to pull himself together enough to stop shooting and start stalking his prey.

"I can smell your fear! I'll hunt you down and use the female for my hair potion, your oni companion's head will make a fine trophy, and the fox will be a fine addition to my pelt collection."

'_Oni, is that what I am, or is this bastard trying to psych us out?_'

While Jin thinks to himself, Kagome and Shippo whisper to each other.

"Got any bright ideas?" Kagome leans towards the fox. "Something tells me we're goners." Whimpers Shippo.

"Don't say that little buddy, there's always a way, we just need to find it!"

Kagome takes a peak from behind their hiding place, and notices something. The arrow from earlier is still lodged in Manten's snout, like a bad nasal piercing.

'_wait a minute, that arrow! Maybe I could use it again!_'

"Shippo, Jin I need your help."

The fox blanches, while the Oto Oni nods.

Somehow Manten manages to hear the exchange and whips in their direction. "THERE YOU ARE!" The thunder lizard screams before shooting another blast.

The rumble of thunder mixes with a loud explosion as the rock is blown away, as the dust settles lying on the ground is an unconscious Kagome, and Jin, the latter still in his armored form.

Manten marches over to the two, taking care to step on Jin as he passes him. Before picking up Kagome by her hair.

"There's the little wench! Did you honestly think you could elude a Thunder Brother!"

That's when Kagome opens her eyes. "Yeah, actually! You slimy mudskipper!"

Manten is caught completely off guard as "Kagome's" hair stretches out wrapping around Manten's arms. "It's funny, I just can't do a _thing_ with my hair today!"

That's when Jin shoots up from his spot on the ground and grabs Manten in a full nelson. "I'm sure we'd all appreciate it if you kept the puns at a minimum little dude."

That's when _another_ Kagome rushes up to the three grapplers.

Manten glances between the two Kagomes, now even more confused.

"What trickery is this!"

"I'll be taking that arrow back if you don't mind!"

And with a deft tug Kagome manages to cleanly yank the arrow out of Manten's face.

That's when Manten makes a startling revelation.

"You're that miserable fox!"

The other Kagome's hair changes color from black to Shippo's reddish-brown.

"In the flesh and blood, here for my father's revenge!"

Kagome gets ready to stab the arrow into Manten. "Hold him down you guys! This may be our last chance!"

'_All I have to do is hit that sacred jewel shardin his forehead!_' "Here goes nothing!"

And as Kagome stabs the arrow forward, Manten somehow manages to wrench one of his arms free from the double lock, and swings it to the side, knocking Kagome back. Following that up with elbowing Jin in the stomach so that the Oni tumbles back, and finishing it all off with knocking Shippo on the head. The little fox loses his hold on his transformation and returning to normal, before Manten punts him away.

With that done, Manten stalks over to Kagome, kneeling down, and wrapping his scaly fingers around her throat.

"Now it your turn!"

Kagome struggles to breath as Manten's grip grows tighter.

"Jin, Inuyasha, help me!"

Inuyasha hearing her distress becomes distracted, "Kagome!"

Using Inuyasha laps of focus, Hiten rushes forward swinging his glaive. The attack connects with Inuyasha's shoulder both cutting and electrocuting the hanyo.

"Din't think my advice about women was worth heeding?"

The agony of the attack, sends Inuyasha to the ground, losing his grip on the Tetsusaiga the enchanted sword returns to its compact form, lodging itself into the groud some distance away. Inuyasha starts pushing himself back up, doing everything in his power to ignore his bleeding shoulder. Only to find Hiten's glaive inches from his chest, the elder brother leering down at Inuyasha.

"Pathetic, you don't live up to your reputation half-breed. Now which should die first? This cursed wretch, the oni, or the odd woman they seem so preoccupied with?"

Inuyasha uses the hand on his good arm, to put pressure on his wound. '_I'll deal with this loser later. I've got to save Kagome first!_'

"What do you think Manten? should we put these fools out of their misery?" Hiten calls to his brother, who is still throttling Kagome.

"I'm in no rush Hiten. I'm quite enjoying myself. What is it about the sight of a woman just before death that is exquisitely irresistible?"

Kagome can only gasp and wheeze as consciousness starts to fade away. When suddenly Shippo picks himself up and leaps through the air latching onto Manten's shoulder.

"LET HER GO!"

"Quiet, fox tyke!" growls Manten before ripping Shippo off and throwing him away.

"When I'm done, I have a surprise for you. My girth has been expanding of late, and I could use another fox pelt to keep me warm at night." Chuckles Manten giving his substantial gut a pat, while fingering Shippo's dad's pelt.

"It'll be like a family reunion."

Shippo can only glower at the younger brother. "So shall I slay you first or skin you alive like I did your father? Or maybe I can sever your toes and use them for a new set of earrings!"

Hiten smiles at his brothers devilry. "Clever Manten! if I didn't know any better I'd say you were becoming quite the villain!"

"Hya, ha, ha! How kind of you to say Hiten!" Manten laughs jovially at his brothers, very, backhanded compliment.

Shippo forces himself off of the ground and makes another flying leap at Manten. Once the fox lands on the lizards shoulder he sinks his little fangs into the demons flesh, doing little more than irritating the younger of the two brothers. "Trying to hasten your fate are we?"

'_I'm not letting go, even if it kills me!_' Shippo thinks desperately. While Manten grabs onto the fox boy, and gives a good tug.

"Release me at once, you little pest!" Shippo grows and sinks his teeth in more.

"Remove those baby teeth, or I'll have to rethink the order of my victims!" Manten punctuates the statement by punching Shippo on the head.

"Manten! careful you don't soil that precious fox stole of yours. You don't want it soaked with blood do you?" Hiten calls to his brother.

"Ah, your right thanks for the tip Hiten!"

Inuyasha feeling irritated by Hiten ignoring him shouts. "Hey, I'll be the first to admit I've racked up my share of karma in the past, but I'm innocent compared to you swine!"

"**Blades of Blood!**" Inuyasha throws the glowing red energy blades, they soar through the air at Hiten. But the older brother proves his strength by defecting the attack with his glaive.

"Finally! It's starting to get interesting!"

But the attack was merely a decoy drawing Hiten's attention away long enough for Inuyasha to make a dash for the Tetsusaiga. The hanyo grabs the sword, which quickly transforms into its true form, and heaves it at Hiten. Hiten deftly dodges out of the way though.

"Nice throw, if your aiming at the rocks!"

Inuyasha lands, not seeming bother by missing Hiten in the least. "Did I get him!"

Hiten glances at where the Tetsusaiga landed and gasps as his beloved brother is skewered. Manten howls in agony before toppling to the ground, releasing Kagome and Shippo.

"MANTEN!"

Kagome quickly comes too after being freed, with Jin rushing up to the two seconds later. "K-chan, you okay?"

"Don't worry I'm fine, but what about Shippo?"

Kagome reaches down and carefully picks up the barely conscious fox boy. Before noticing the compact form of the Tetsusaiga still embedded in Manten's body.

"The Tetsusaiga, we need to get it back to Inuyasha." Jin nods, but Shippo mumbles something.

"Don't leave my father." Jin looks down at Shippo before smiling down at him behind his helmet.

"Don't worry little guy he'll be safe with us."

During this sweet little exchange, Hiten is still rushing towards his brother.

"MANTEN!"

"Kagome, Jin! Get out of there before he kills you!"

"DIE ALL OF YOU!" Screams Hiten shooting a bolt of lightening at the three, the resulting explosion throws them through the air. With Hiten landing next to his brother.

"Manten!" The younger brother despite the heavily bleeding stab wound manages to force himself up into a kneeling position.

"Hiten, they're gone! Every last strand of my hair has fallen, and with them my hopes of becoming happy."

"Don't be foolish Manten! we can make it grow back!" Manten smiles sadly at his brother.

"It's no use, I'll never have your beautiful hair." Manten can't help but remember the days of their youth.

"You were fortunate enough to inherit our father's looks, but fate smote me. It was my unfortunate lotin life to resemble our homely mother with her receding hairline, and her decidedly reptilian countenance. How I longed for the looks shared by you and father!"

Manten's waxing is cut short by a violent coughing fit, his brothers face the picture of worry.

"Beauty isn't about what's on the outside! I wouldn't change a thing about you, brother! I love every last bald inch of you!"

"Thank you, even if you don't mean it. Say a prayer for me when I'm gone. Pray that I'll be reborn as a fuzzy caterpillar, covered in hair from head to furry toe. No, brother who am I trying to kid? I'd rather be reborn bald again. I'd make that sacrifice if I could be reborn as your brother. Wouldn't that be nice Hiten?"

And with that the younger of the two thunder brothers breathed his last, dying in his brothers arms.

"MANTEN! PLEASE DON"T DIE!"

A short ways away from this brotherly moment Inuyasha manages to catch up to everyone else, helping Kagome up from the ground.

"Kagome, are you alright!"

"I'm okay, but I dropped the Tetsusaiga during the attack!"

"We're fine by the way, thanks for asking ya mutt!" A partially irritated Jin calls from his spot next to a near unconscious Shippo, who's wrapped in his fathers pelt.

Ignoring him for now Kagome looks sadly up at Inuyasha, "I just wanted you to know, I'm sorry. I messed up."

"Damn right you messed up! You messed up big time! But, sword or no sword you're wrong if you think I'm going to let that beast Hiten get the better of me!"

"Nice pep talk there lassie! However unlike some people I'm still armed and dangerous." Jin's almost snide voice comes from the side, then with a flick of his wrists and a flash of purple fire, his mallets appear in his hands.

"Like those are gonna do any good." Growls Inuyasha, although the jealously of Jin still having a suitable weapon is on his face.

All of this aside Hiten is mourning his brother, tears streaming down his face.

"YOU WRETCHES! You've slaughtered my brother! My dearest Manten! rest assured that we shall always be as one!"

The madness of revenge overpowers the sorrow of loss and Hiten sinks his teeth into his lifeless brothers forehead, the actual action obscured by a blinding flash of lightning. Needless to say, everyone is surprised, and disgusted.

Kagome looked half ready to lose her lunch, "Hiten is a cannibal?"

"Wait, things are not always what they appear!"

Everyone looks down at Myoga who's bouncing up and down in a panic.

"Hiten bit into his brothers head to fuse the sacred jewel shards with his own body. Master you must be even more careful than before! For now Hiten holds the power of five shards."

Myoga leaps onto Inuyasha shoulder to be on even ground with his master, who's glairing at the flea.

"Mind trying to explain your total absence up 'til now?" Myoga stutters and sweats at his masters harsh, but very true, words.

Kagome also glairs at Myoga with a dead pan expression on her face, "convenient how you disappeared just when the going got rough!"

That's when Jin throws his two cents in, "you catch that? That's what we call "sarcasm." As in, "it _wasn't_ convenient that you bailed on us when we needed you most!""

They would have kept berating the flea if Hiten didn't chose that moment to go back on the offensive, Jin and Inuyasha manage to sense the attack coming and leap out of the way, carrying Kagome, Shippo, and his dad's pelt, with them. Dodgeing out of the way of the lightning blast, a smoking crater remaining where they were seconds ago.

"How dare you strike down my beloved brother! I shall not stop 'til I've repaid the deed!"

'_His thunder pike is even stronger than before! He has the power of five jewel shards now, and I've got a real fight on my hands!_' Inuyasha grits his teeth and clenches his fists, knowing this would be the most difficult fight to date.

"Listen up you two, take Shippo and get as far away from here as you can!" Orders Inuyasha, not taking his eyes off of Hiten for a second.

"We can't leave you."

"Like it or not Fido we're a team, we just can't let you die here."

But Inuyasha left no room for argument, "do it now!"

The duo from the future glance at each other before nodding reluctantly.

"Okay."

"I'll make sure to keep these two safe, just don't die on us Hooch."

At this point Hiten was definitely tired of waiting.

"I shall avenge my brother! PREPAIR TO DIE!"

The older brother concentrates a huge amount of electrical energy, the orb of lighting shoots forward, and quickly grows to ten times its normal size.

"I can't avoid it!"

"My lord! Use the sheath of Tetsusaiga!"

Inuyasha glances at Myoga, "use the sheath to stave off the lightning!"

"You'd better be right!"

Inuyasha holds up Tetsusaiga's sheath, the attack plowing into it, and to Inuyasha and Hiten's surprise the attack is held back, the sheath even manages to absorb some of the energy. When everything settled down there were two deep trenches on either side of Inuyasha, but the sheath had pulled it off.

Inuyasha stares in awe "Wow! It really worked!"

"Just as I presumed! Since the sheath keeps the almighty Tetsusaiga's incredible power in check, it can easily repel a mere lightning bolt!" Lectured Myoga, although he did let off a sigh of relief.

"Whew! I'm just glad my hunch was correct!"

"WHAT! It was just a hunch!"

"Well not so much a hunch my lord. More like a highly educated guess. But let's get back to the more pertinent matter of escaping with our lives!"

Inuyasha smirks at his newfound trick, "are you kidding, I'm gonna defeat this guy for sure now!"

Inuyasha leaps back into the fray, holding Tetsusaiga's sheath like a shield, Hiten counters by chucking another lightning orb at him. Inuyasha holds up the sheath deflecting most of the orbs destructive energy.

"If I can blast through the core, I can defeat him!"

Inuyasha manages to pierce through the attack, but before he can celebrate, Hiten managed to speed around him stabbing Inuyasha in the back with his Thunder Pike.

"It was a good strategy, in theory that is!" Laughs the remaining thunder brother before sapping Inuyasha with a few thousand volts of electricity.

Inuyasha howls in pain his body writhing from the overabundance of electrical signals in his body, before dropping to the ground like a stone.

"Inuyahsa!"

"Oh man, I knew Scooby couldn't do this without me."

While Jin and Kagome worry for their "friends" health, Shippo begins to regain consciousness.

"Ooh, huh! Father fur."

That's when the two realize that Shippo has woken up.

"Shippo! Are you alright?" Kagome asks as she kneels down next to the fox boy.

"Kagome, what happened to Manten!"

"Don't worry about him Inuyasha brought him down. But now Hiten's gone blood drunk with revenge!"

Back at the fight Hiten charges in for another attack bringing his pike for an overhead swing. "Do you want to be burned to a crisp? Or chopped into a salad?"

Inuyasha brings up the sheath intercepting the attack, excess lightening surges around the two.

"Inuyasha's getting tired."

"Yeah, well even Astro would have a hard time fighting anybody who could fly around like thunder boy can."

"STOP CALLING ME NAMES YOU JACKASS!"

Despite the childish exchange going on between the two boys Kagome makes an important revelation.

"That's it! Hiten uses those wheels to fly, if we can take those out the odds would be evened in a big way!"

"Good thinking K-chan problem is I've got nothing that can go that far, and you've got an arrow without a bow."

"Need a bow, coming right up!"

Both time travelers look down at Shippo who's placing a leaf on his head.

"Don't ask questions just let me take care of this."

With that said Shippo leaps into the air and does a summersault while being surrounded by fox fire. Kagome grins with excitement.

"He's going to transform into a bow!"

"Way to go little dude!"

With a puff of smoke Shippo transforms, into a goofy looking thing that could barely be construed as a bow.

"We, needed a bow not a snail."

Despite being an inanimate object Shippo still sweatdrops, "I _am_ a bow!"

Back with the fight Hiten manages to get the drop on Inuyasha, forcing the Hanyo to the ground.

Reading her improvised bow Kagome knocks the arrow and pulls the string back.

"What's taking you so long Kagome! Hurry up and fire!" Shippo whines.

"I only have one arrow left. And I'm not exactly a marksman, y'know."

"You will be with my help!" Confidence practically oozing out of Shippo's voice.

Kagome nods, "Thanks now let's get that sucker!"

Kagome pulls back and lets the arrow fly, right when Hiten is charging in for another attack. With Shippo's help the arrow flies straight and true, smashing through one of Hiten's wheels throwing off his flight pattern.

"Yes the girl can shoot!"

"Nice shooting there Tex!" Calls Jin with an over exaggerated southern twang.

"Now you're all mine you bastard!"

"I find your confidence annoying you damn half-breed!"

Despite his flight capabilities being severely reduced Hiten is able to thrust the Thunder Pike at Inuyasha again, and once more electricity dances around the two. Then Inuyasha reaches up with his free hand and grabs Hiten's weapon.

"WHAT IS MASTER INUYASHA DOING! He is indeed strong but to take hold of the Thunder Pike is foolhardy indeed!" panics Myoga, from his new spot next to the rest of the observers, who immediately take notice.

"Hey wait a minute weren't you with Snoopy not two seconds ago?"

Back with the plot, Inuyasha keeps his grip on the Thunder Pike tight before,

"I don't need this thing anymore!" Tossing the sheath aside.

"Don't let go of the sheath you fool! It's your only chance to triumph!"

With his other hand now free Inuyasha curls it into a fist, "I'll do this my way!"

And socks Hiten with his mean right hook.

With a thud Hiten goes flying back, crashing into a hill, kicking up dust and debris.

"Not bad for a half-breed right Hiten!" Inuyasha shouts at the downed thunder demon. Everyone else is kind of stunned.

"Well, that's _one_ way of beating him I guess." Kagome.

"Whatever works, I always say." Shippo.

"K.O. for master Inuyasha! He slugged him right in the kisser! Got him with the old right hook!" Myoga.

"Weren't you calling him a fool not a minute ago." Jin.

Hiten however manages to pull himself up, the left side of his face quickly growing red from a painful welt.

"I've never been struck in the face, and I refuse to allow it again!"

Hiten's body is surrounded by a blue aura, spilling out killing intent.

"Uh-oh this is bad!"

"He's going to explode!" Shippo finishes for Kagome.

"Damn it I can't just stand here anymore, he needs help." Jin's about to leap back into the fray when he feels two small hands wrap around his leg.

"NO DON'T! Hiten will kill you too." Shippo desperately pleads as he clings on to Jin's leg.

"Shippo's right, whether you want to admit it or not, Inuyasha is way stronger than you, you've got to trust him this time."

Jin stares at Kagome, and she stares back at him, before he sighs dejectedly.

"Fine, but if he dies I'm tagging in."

Unknown to everybody Inuyasha is a tad relevied that Shippo and Kagome were able to keep Jin from getting involved, as long as they stayed to the side there was less chance of them getting caught in the crossfire and getting hurt. So he gets himself ready for Hiten's next attack, which comes shortly afterwards.

"I'll see you in hell you swine!"

Inuyasha makes a dive for the Tetsusaiga's sheath as Hiten charges towards him, thankfully Inuyasha proves just fast enough, and brings the sheath to bear.

Once again the sheath takes the bulk of the attack, but after awhile the strain starts to get to the sheath, and with a loud crunch a large crack appears in the sheath.

"I SHALL RELISH YOUR DEMISE MORE THAN ANY OTHER HALF-BREED!" Hiten screams over the din of thunder.

Myoga begins to sweat in fear, "oh no! If the sheath should shatter," Myoga leaves the sentence unfinished the implications hanging in the air.

"He'll lose." Finishes Kagome

"Not just that, Hiten will definitely kill him, and we'll be next." Growls Jin, nervously fingering his mallets, all the while subtly and unconsciously increasing the ambient temperature around him.

Kagome meanwhile glances over to Manten's lifeless body the Tetsusaiga lying near him. "We've got to get the Tetsusaiga to Inuyasha somehow."

"Right I'm on it!" With little more warning than that Shippo scampers off leaving the older two behind.

"Shippo! It's too dangerous! Get back here!"

"Yeah! You just stopped me from going out there two minutes ago!"

Jin and Kagome rush after the fox boy, not before picking up his fathers pelt of course.

Hiten hearing the shouting turns around, and sees the three running across the field. And with a malicious smirk he opens his mouth, electrical power already building up.

Inuyasha sees this and gasps, '_he must've gained Manten's abilities along with his jewel shards!_'

"Kagome run for it!"

But the warning comes too late, as a blast surpisingly larger than any Manten had thrown soars thought the air at the three. Jin manages to turn in time to see the incoming blast and he surges forward faster than ever, throwing himself over Kagome and Shippo just as they reach the Tetsusaiga's resting place, before being consumed by a tremendous explosion.

"Hah! Don't waste your breath on them!"

"KAGOME! JIN!"

The three lay on the ground surrounded by blazing flames, the sheer ferocity of the attack is more then enough to cause Jin to lose the hold of his transformation, and without his armor he'll die with the others.

"Such a shame it seems that their all dead!"

"YOU, YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! YOU KILLED MY FRIENDS!" Inuyasha's fury doubles and re-doubles as he manages to throw Hiten out of the stalemate they were in, the remaining thunder brother skids back.

"Yes! That's right half-breed!"

That's what Hiten is saying but what he's thinking is more along the lines of, '_I don't understand it! He fights as well as any real demon I've ever fought before!_'

"YOU"LL REGRET THE DAY YOU CROSSED ME I PROMISE YOU THAT!" Shouts Inuyasha, his anger continuing to grow to incredible amounts.

"I think the blood's gone to your head since you lost your woman! When will you learn that no woman is worth risking a battle over!" Growls Hiten before powering up again.

"A BROTHER'S REVENGE ON THE OTHER HAND, IS WELL WORTH FIGHTING TO THE DEATH FOR!"

The two clash again, the sheath suffering further strain.

"The sheath is about to break!" Shouts Myoga!

Suddenly out of no where the Tetsusaiga soars through the air, Inuaysha seeing his sword manages to catch it in his right hand.

"The sheath summoned the sword!" gasps Myoga in surprise.

Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Inuyasha swings the Tetsusaiga up, the sword quickly transforming into its true form, and brings it down, cleaving the Thunder Pike and by extension Hiten in two.

Hiten staggers back and falls to his knees. '_I was defeated! This half demon defeated both of us?_' And with a bright flash of purple light Hiten fades from existence, his jewel shards falling to the ground.

"Lord Inuyasha! The jewel shards!" Cheers Myoga.

"I don't care, if only I'd taken care of Hiten sooner I could have saved the others."

"Inuyasha!" Thinking he's hearing things for a second, Inuyasha turns around and to his shock, is his friends. Surrounded by an eerie blue aura.

"Inuyasha, you fought hard and well."

"And in the end I was able to avenge my father!"

"I gotta say, I'm proud of you inu-temme!"

Each one of Inuyasha's friends smiling in turn.

Myoga gasps in awe, "Witness! The souls have come to bid you a final farewell before they depart to the other side."

Suddenly the blue aura spins around the three and begins to shoot upwards into the air. And Inuyasha runs towards them.

"NO WAIT! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

The blue aura flies into the air, taking the shape of a large fox before winking out of existence.

"KAGOME!" Shouts Inuyasha one last time before, noticing he has something warm in his hand, Kagome's arm. His friends are alive and still in front of him.

"Hey, you're still here!"

"Yeah, but what's with that don't leave me stuff ya mook!"

Shippo however is looking up in the sky at where the flames disappeared, '_father, you used your fox fire to save us during the battle, thank you._'

Myoga is now quite embarrassed, "um, uh, when I say souls I mean fox fire, which shout out of Shippo's father's fur."

Inuyasha is equally embarrassed, "yeah, sure, I make that mistake all the time."

"Um, do ya mind?" It turns out Inuyasha is still holding on to Kagome's hand, realizing this he lets her go with a Yuck! His old demeanor quickly returning.

"This is all your fault ya know, with that sappy, "we're proud of you and, you fought the good fight" stuff. If you're gonna die then die! Not like I care or anything just make up your mind next time!"

Time break

Now that everything with the thunder brothers is all said and done, the three, now four, five if you count the flea, which I don't, make their way home. Inuyasha in the lead, Kagome and Jin right behind him, the former walking her bike, and Shippo sitting comfortably in the bikes basket.

"C'mon, Inuyasha tell us why your so upset!"

"Yeah, Scrappy it can't get anymore embarrassing for you than it already is!"

"I believe master Inuyasha is ashamed that he believed you were dead, and in a moment of grief may have revealed more than he bargened for!"

Jin can't help himself but give a cheesy smile, "ah, the old Freudian slip eh!" Now Kagome can't help herself but laugh.

At the moment Inuyasha is doing his best to ignore the others, except for one, "why are _you_ still tagging along Shippo!"

"Whadda you think? You guys need me an you know it! Besides I'm a defenseless orphan! How am I supposed to get by in the world!" Inuyasha gives an irritated growl.

"So Shippo! You village called, they're missing they're idiot!"

"Kagome, nii-san, he's being mean to me!"

"Inuyasha say you're sorry!"

"NO WAY IN HELL!"

"SIT BOY!"

And so it goes.

A.N.

Well folks here it finally is, an update to my best/most popular/favorite story, and I gotta say, to make sure such a gap doesn't happen again, I'm going to have to focus on just one of my ideas for a while and this one is gonna be it, so to the fans of my other stories, don't worry just consider them on hiatus, not canceled. And to my Aibo, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


	12. The Terror of the Ancient Noh Mask

Once more with feeling, Inuyasha and Kamen rider Hibiki are both the properties of their respective owners. All work done here is purely for entertainment purposes and never for profit. Also while only mentioned briefly I also do not own NCIS.

Now that we've got that outta the way, on with the show!

"Hello" speech

'_hello_' thought

"**Hello**"Demonic voices

"_**Hiyah!**_" special attacks, techniques

Last time our heroes were in quite the pickle, Kagome was a prisoner of the Thunder Brothers, and in order to rescue her the boys had to partake in what was the most difficult battle of their journey. But with little Shippo's help the younger brother Manten was quickly defeated. However his elder brother was not to be so easy. Combining his fallen brothers shards with his own increased his already impressive powers to a new level. But thankfully while battered and bruised our intrepid team managed to survive the battle and emerged five jewel shards richer, with a new companion, Shippo the young but clever fox demon, but the question is what happens now?

Inuyasha and the Power of Pure Sound: The Terror of the Ancient Noh Mask.

A few days after the demise of the Thunder Brothers peace returned to the land, and after a much needed respite our heroes were ready to return to the quest or so we'd like to think. The sun shined strong and beautiful through the trees surrounding the bone eaters well. When out of the bushes pokes Kagome her bike at the ready.

"No sign of him, you hear anything Jin." Just behind her crouched into a runners stance ready to hoof it, Jin puts one of his hands to his ear and listens carefully. "Nothing but cicada's K-chan, I think we're in the clear." Kagome nods and hops on her bike.

"Alright here goes!" With little more than that as a signal both modern era teens rush towards the well, both probably matching Olympic athletes thanks to the adrenaline. Of course even that's not enough to match someone who's super human all the time.

"Not so fast you two!" Calls a red and silver blur that rushes past the two and directly into the path to the well. The blur settles into the ever irate Inuyasha. "You guys aren't going anywhere 'til you hand over those jewel shards!"

Kagome glares at Inuyasha hoping that one of her yet undiscovered Miko powers are incinerating laser eye beams, no such luck though. "In our era kids our age goes to school, and tomorrow these kids have a huge final!"

Jin nods his consent, "you have any idea how much we missed as it is. If I don't keep my GPA up I'll be shipped back to the states, and we'll probably fail even if we ace the damn thing, I've never failed a class before who knows what that will do to my chances of getting into an Ivy League school and…."

Thankfully Jin's doom spiral is stopped short by the sight of Inuyasha hefting a large bolder over to the well. "HEY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" yell the kids of the future.

Inuyasha shoots the two friends a smug grin. "I'm going to cover up the well for good! So you can't escape to that strange era of yours! Good riddance." But before the dog could finish his "grand scheme" Jin activates his onkaku, the sound waves catching Inuyasha off guard, and with his hands full he can't cover his ears to block out the sound. Kagome then follows that up with a barrage of "SITS!" one after the other in quick succession, with the sound of Jin's onkaku breaking his focus and the beads bearing down on him, it's not long before Inuyasha is face first on the ground, his rock landing on his back with a heavy thud.

With that the two humans make a break for it, Jin diving into the well with a, "Geronimo!" Kagome quickly follows, "stay boy! We'll be back in three days, and don't even think about following us!" With that Kagome jumps down the well too. The dry bone filled well bottom quickly disappearing being replaced with the glowing purple path through space and time.

Meanwhile back in the present, "kaeri tamae, modori tamae!" Chants the weathered old voice of Kagome's grandfather. And there he sits in his colorful vestiments chanting away with Sota sitting nearby, with Buyo the cat, watching everything.

"Why are you wasting your time chanting that stuff? It doesn't really work does it?"

"Of course it does! The ancient "get-out-of-the-well" chant has been passed down through the many generations of Higurashi priests!"

With that Kagome's grandpa picks up a small wooden bucket. "And now for the sacred rice wine, here goes!" Grandpa Higurashi then dumps the contents of the bucket into the well. While unknown to him the two kids have just finished their transference from the past, landing perfectly at the bottom of the well.

"Ah, perfect reentry K-chan!" That is until the sacred wine pours down on their heads.

Sometime later a warm meal sits on the Higurashi kitchen. "ACHOO!" The sneeze permeating what would otherwise be a perfectly peaceful dinner.

"What's the matter Buyo, you caught a cold, or maybe my hair still smells a little funny?" Kagome idly brings a lock of her hair up to her nose and gives it a test sniff. While Jin takes a seat at the table polishing his glasses with a towel Mrs. Higurashi was kind enough to give him. "Nah, somebody's just trying to bogart the attention of his favorite person, cats love to do that ya know. By the way Sota have you been taking care of you know what?"

Kagome's little brother nods, "Yeah, every other day, just like you told me."

"Good man, don't forget to remind me to pay you."

"Pay him for what?" Asks Kagome, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Oh, I promised to pay the little man to send my mom an e-mail every now and then, so she doesn't worry too much about me, that's 100 yen per e-mail right?" Asks Jin while he starts fumbling around for his wallet.

"So where's the dog guy, Inuyasha? Didn't you bring him home with you?"

Kagome sees fit to answer that question with a huff, "of course not Jin and I have better things to do than babysit a demon all day." Punctuating that sentence by taking a bite out of a piece of toast. '_Oh, boy my life's gotten really complicated as of late. I've lived at the Higurashi shrine ever since I was born, with my mom, grandpa, and my brother Sota, and until recently I was just your average middle school girl. But after that things started to get weird, we have a well that leads to the feudal era, that's full of all kinds of monsters and other weird stuff. All after the shards of the Shikon Jewel, not to mention my friend Jin transforming into what people are starting to call an oni and getting all kinds of super powers. Both of our lives have become anything but average. I keep hoping that I'm going to wake up and find out it's some kind of bad dream. But it's not and we just have to find our own ways of dealing with it._'

The next morning following a night with Jin staying at her place, the two got up quickly got ready for school and marched off for another day of proper education. But unbeknownst to them, something strange was happening in the modern era, on Kagome's desk in her room the jewel shards still exuded their supernatural power, and that unusual aura caused a reaction with something else. In the Higurashi shrine in a small box covered in sacred seals, and evil power began to reawaken after what seemed like an eternity of dormancy.

Meanwhile at the school, the two time travelers rushed up to the school, finding Kagome's other friends. Ayumi a girl of average build with wavy black hair and expressive brown eyes, Yuka the tallest of the three friends with her short brown hair and her energetic blue eyes, and lastly Eri the sub-boss of the little troop when Kagome isn't around with her shoulder length black hair held up with a yellow hairband and her stunning black eyes.

"Hey girls wait up!" Kagome calls as she and Jin rush up through the crowd.

"Kagome there you are. We're so glad to see your better I mean that's quite a nasty place to get a cat bite."

"Yeah and when you were about to finish that treatment then you got pulled out for Lyme disease tests."

Kagome can only sweat drop at what Eri and Yuka were saying, wondering what the hell her family has been telling everyone when Jin manages to catch up.

"Man K-chan if you ran like that all the time you-know-who would never be able to catch us."

"YOU!" three very displeased female voices shout at the same time as the girls rushed past Kagome and gang up on Jin hands on their hips in displeasure. Jin's eyes shift nerviously between the three of them. "Um, hi girls, how's it going?"

"How's it going?" Shouts Ayumi, before all three start rifling through their backpacks finding several papers, all covered with red pen marks with scores ranging from the low fifties to the high sixties.

"Um, what am I looking at exactly?" Jin asks still looking very nervous.

"What you are looking at is all the English assignments we've had while you've been out, you promised to tutor us, and you had to go and get the flu, not to mention Marcus-san is so busy with whatever it is he does after school we couldn't turn to him for a plan b."

Being one of two native English speakers in the grade Jin was asked to help tutor his classmates with their English homework often, especially Kagome's little clique, but seeing as he was gone for days several English grades started to plummet.

"What can I say that flu stuff hits you hard." While Kagome is kinda bothered that her friends were grilling Jin like that she couldn't help but wonder, why Jin got the run-of-the-mill flu while she got some obscure disease.

Of course the two were saved when another voice called up to them. "Hey Kagome!" everyone turns and up the hill on his bike rides a ridiculously handsome young man with short brown hair and eyes, an immaculately pressed uniform glides up on his wheels and with a perfect smile on his face asks Kagome, "How're those bunions?"

While Jin immediately topples over from the sheer audacity of the question, the girls are stunned. "Oh, wow! It's Hojo the megahunk!" One of the girls squeals quietly, although Kagome couldn't be sure which one it was.

"Quite the nasty double whammy, bunions and the gout!" Again Jin is flattened by what Hojo just said, while Kagome is absolutely mortified. That is until Hojo hands her a small package wrapped in pink paper. "My mom wrapped it up."

Kagome carefully opens the packaging and reveals a pair of unusual sandals. "Their therapeutic for your bunions!" Hojo calls as he cycles off while waving goodbye. Jin finally pulls himself off of the ground, "What the hell, just happened!"

"Your guess is as good as mine sempai!" A voice shouts from behind Jin causing him to leap three feet into the air with a panicked shriek. After landing and making sure his heart is still beating Jin whips around with a glair. "Damn it Marcus, you know I hate that!"

Marcus is a tall African-american youth easily a few inches taller than his sempai, although it was hard to tell with his slouch. His long black hair tied up into a ponytail a big cheesy grin on his face. "Why do you think I do it?"

"Come on man, the guys been sick give him a break." Yet another voice calls out. Walking up to the little group was another boy a little shorter than Jin, his short black hair billowing freely in the breeze. His backpack dangling freely in his left hand, while on his back was a cloth guitar case.

"Don't be such a pussy Kilo. As men it is our duty to bust each others balls, I mean come on who lets the flu get him down like that." The other boys just sigh and share a look that seems to say, 'that's why he'll never get a girl friend'. However Marcus glances back and forth between the two. "I know that look that's your 'I'll never get a girlfriend' look, don't think I don't know it cause I do."

Jin just sighs, "we spend way too much time with you, eh K-chan." Of course by know the collection of girls has already started marching off to class the three friends grilling Kagome about Hojo. "Hey wait up!" Jin calls after them as he rushes off after them leaving Marcus and Kilo alone, Kilo then turns to Marcus flicks his free wrist and makes a whip sound. At which Marcus immediately starts laughing, "Oh, yeah totally!"

Later on during a free period the three friends are still grilling Kagome about the very brief conversation with Hojo.

"So you mean he's never talked to you before today."

"Not really."

"Oh, no what if she likes someone else!"

Jin gives an annoyed groan from his desk just behind Kagome, "Oh, for the love of Jonny Cash! You've been on this for hours, can't you give it a rest already!"

Yuri just spares Jin a glance, "we're still not talking to you."

"You just did and besides I was sick, I would have told you but for like a day or two I couldn't open my mouth without sounding like something from the inner circle of hell."

"All that aside, I don't really like anyone."

"But if you did, who would it be? What's your type, athletic, intellectual?"

Kagome just leans forward burying her face in her hands. "I don't know." But all this talk about boys couldn't help but get her thinking a little. '_he definitely can't be aggressive! He'd be kind and caring and wouldn't get mad easily. Yeah someone the exact opposite of Inuyasha would be perfect for me._'

In that time Kagome has moved across the room and is gazing longingly out the window. "And ladies and gentlemen Kagome has left the building." Mutters Jin almost able to picture the "love sparkles" floating around her head.

"I guess that's an undecided." Mutter Eri, "maybe she's still sick" whispers Yuri.

~temporal shift~

Meanwhile back in the feudal era, lady Kaede is busy grinding up some herbs for a medicinal treatment turning around at the pained groan she hears behind her. "Stop lazing about! Get off ye duff and seek out some information on the sacred jewel!"

Laying behind her looking more perturbed than usual, was Inuyahsa. "If "ye" haven't noticed, my back's out of commission thanks to all those sit commands."

'Oh, when you get back you're gonna pay Kagome, you and your little boyfriend.' Of course Inuyasha getting riled up only aggravates his back.

~temporal shift~

Back at the Higurashi shrine old man Higurashi is making his way up the stairs when the smell of smoke comes to his old nose. "Eh? A fire!" Sure enough smoke was pouring out of the old storehouse. The old man rushes in to see the cause of the fire the small box from before seems to be the source of the blaze, as the sacred seals burn off, and the box itself explodes apart revealing an old Noh mask, covered in scars.

A demonic voice emanates from the wooden face, "**I NEED A BODY!**"

Grandpa Higurashi stares in horror. "This is terrible! The Noh mask has burned through the talismans that have sealed its evil for generations."

The old man grabs a bucket of sacred wine and pours it over himself before retrieving several talismans from inside his robes. "My ancestor exorcized that evil mask for a Noh actor who brought it to him! It was called the "flesh eating mask" and was rumored to have terrifying powers! I must seal it up again!"

Grandpa Higurashi throws the talismans at the mask, with impressive accuracy, but his feeble attempts at exorcism are for naught as the masks demonic aura burns the talismans before they can make contact. "**A body I must possess a body!**"

"If the vile thing embodies living flesh again it'll wreak havoc on us all!" Grandpa Higurashi yells over the roar of the blaze as the disembodied voice of the mask continues to echo all around him.

"**A BODY!**"

~Later that day~

Kagome and Jin were finished with their time serv- I mean the school day and were making their way home, when an ambulance rushes by sirens wailing. While further down the street a trio of boys are chatting animatedly amongst themselves.

"Did ya hear? Higurashi shrine's on fire!"

"Oh, cool let's check it out!"

As the boys rush off Jin and Kagome shoot each other a glance before picking up the pace.

At the shrine however things seem to be winding down a little. Several police cars and a couple of fire trucks sit parked in front of the shrine, while the police continue to wave the crowd away.

"Alright people nothing to see here move along!"

"Just a small fire folks nothing to worry about!"

Kagome and Jin make their way up the stairs taking care not to step on the fire hoses even in their rush. As they reach the top they see Mrs. Higurashi finishing a conversation with a police officer.

"MOM!"

"MRS. H"

"Oh, hello you two." Says Mrs. Higurashi as the two teens rush up to her.

"Mom, what happened?"

"Well, the old storehouse caught on fire. And grandpa was trapped inside with all the smoke. But don't worry they said it's nothing too serious. He should be fine after a few days at the hospital."

Mrs. Higurashi places a comforting hand on her daughters shoulder. "I'm on my way to the hospital to see how he's doing. Kagome you stay here and wait for Sota and Jin you stay here with Kagome I don't want her alone right now."

Despite her worry for her grandfather Kagome had other things on her mind, 'a fire in the storehouse? Something doesn't seem right about this.'

Meanwhile back in the old storehouse several firefighters continue some last checks around the old building.

"Look up there that beam's gotta come down."

"From what we can tell the fire started over here, be careful up there in the attic!"

But inside the building one of the firemen is carefully picking his way through the charred remains of some boxes when something catches his eye. A movement of some sort in one of the large puddles of water made by the fire hoses.

"What's that?"

The firefighter carefully approaches the pool squinting to see what it could be. When the Flesh Eating Mask reappears launches out of the water like a missile and latches itself onto the mans face. The firefighter only has enough time to let off a panicked and agonized scream as he tries to pry the mask off his face, only for the evil magic within to take hold.

Back outside Sota finally makes it home rushing up the steps as quickly as possible.

"Jin, Kagome!"

Kagome kneels down to her brothers eye level and places a couple of comforting hands on his shoulders. "Don't worry Sota no one was seriously hurt!"

"Yeah, don't sweat it little buddy the old geezer's a lot tougher then he looks, he'll probably outlive us all."

Of course this is cold comfort when the sounds of squealing wheels, crushing metal, and panicked screaming start coming from the street.

One of the fire trucks races off crushing police cars and almost running people over.

"SIR! Requesting a call for back up!"

"Permission granted stop that truck!"

The three kids look on in surprise and a little fear.

"What the, front end loader was that all about?" Jin asks, quickly changing the word he had in mind after reminding himself that Sota was present. All across the city the warning went over the news, on the radio, every CB and police scanner, "This just in, a fire truck is driving wildly through the streets, completely out of control. The number of injured so far has not been confirmed however, as every person that crosses it's path seems to have disappeared."

Meanwhile elsewhere in town the rouge fire truck barrels down the streets tires squealing like no tomorrow. Inside the cab the mask looks on in distress as the fire fighters body has change from healthy skin to fetid brown goop that starts to slough off the bones.

"**The flesh is disintegrating! I must find more jewel shards, then I can have a true body one of everlasting flesh.**"

At the hospital Kagome, after asking Jin to stay with Sota, meets up with her mom. "How's grandpa doing, is he awake yet?"

"He's still unconscious, it's strange though, the doctor expected him to be awake by now. But I'm sure his age isn't helping things, it's just a matter of time."

That's when Kagome notices something in her mother's hands. "What are those? Let me see!"

"They're talismans, the firefighters found them all over grandpa's face and in his mouth. Whatever happened in that shed really spooked him."

From his hospital bed grandpa Higurashi continues to mumble quietly in his sleep. "beware the flesh eating mask."

~Later that evening~

The sun has long since set, and the three kids had settled down at the Higurashi residence with Kagome sitting at her desk pondering what had happened today, with Jin sitting on her bed flipping through a text book. "So it's the three of us with mom staying at the hospital with grandpa."

"I'm honestly surprised your mom asked me to say here tonight, I a teenage boy alone in your room with you a teenage girl, no parental supervision to speak of. The neighbors might talk." Jin gives Kagome a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

"Give it a rest Jin, that joke got old like an hour ago."

That's when Sota pads into the room, dragging a blanket and some pillows. "Sis and Buyo and I sleep in here tonight?"

"Don't be such a scaredy-cat! You can stay in your own room."

"_Grandpa_ was scared, he covered his face in those talismans. Something creepy happened you guys! I just know it!"

"Well Jin and I are going to be up all night studying, so you have to go back to your room."

Just then a gust of wind blows by giving the window an eerie rattle.

Kagome glances outside at the night sky. '_Something's wrong. We've never had trouble like this at the shrine before_.' She starts looking around the room, '_why after all these generations_?' Then her eyes come across the bottle holding the jewel shards trying and failing miserably to look innocent. '_That's it! The jewel shards, this all started when Jin and I brought them back_.'

That's when all hell breaks loose. The rouge fire truck revs its way up the stairs and smashes its way through the front gate, then the ladder extends crashing into Kagome's room, sending splinters of wood and shards of glass flying every were, Jin and Kagome hit the floor with the girl dragging her brother down with her.

There in the bucket sits the rotten semi-humanoid blob that is the flesh eating mask's makeshift body. The three kids look on in surprise, terror, and shock respectively.

"That must be the flesh-eating mask that grandpa was mumbling about!" Kagome shouts over the bedlam. Before noticing the mask extends a psudopod that takes the form of a vague hand, and reaches out for the shard bottle.

"**I must have, the shards of the shikon jewel!**"

Kagome pushes herself off the floor and launches herself at the desk snatching the jewel shards off of her desk before the mask can.

"**Give me the jewel pieces!**" Moans the mask making its way towards the three kids.

Kagome then picks up her shell shocked brother and carries him out of the room. "Come on Sota! This is no time to zone out!"

Jin runs close behind doing his best not to look back at the shambling blob of rotten flesh. '_we need to get Inuyasha, he can help us_.'

Once outside the cold night air helps Sota regain enough of his scenes to run on his own with his hand firmly holding on to Kagome's, when he notices, "Kagome! Your fingers are bleeding!" Shouts the youngest of the three, while Buyo glances over his shoulder.

"It's nothing, I just cut myself on the glass."

That's when the ladder swings around again, placing the bucket and the mask squarely overhead the three runners. The mask leaps from the bucket, Kagome shoves Sota away while she and Jin leap back, the mask lands in a heap on the ground before re-condensing itself it's lifeless gaze fixed squarely on Kagome.

"**Give me the jewel shards!**" moans the mask again, the jewel shard in its forehead shining like a beacon to Kagome.

'_the mask, it has a jewel fragment on its forehead! So that's why it's after the shards! We've got to get Sota outta here!_'

"Jin! Go for it!"

"I'm on it!"

Jin reaches into his shirt and pulls out the Onkaku. The blob shifts its gaze to Jin its body bubbling in surprise.

"**That device!**"

Jin then gives the tuning fork a gentle tap, activating the power within. Then par for the course the Mask starts to writhe in agony at the sound.

"**Aagh, the noise, the noise, make it stop!**"

"Henshin!**" **Shouts Jin as he holds the tuning fork to his forehead, triggering the transformation. The wave of flames cover his body raising the temperature in the temples courtyard by at least six degrees. Sota stands there completely gob smacked at what's happening. With a rising yell Jin feels the power of his demonic form flooding through his veins and with a wave of his hand he dispels the flames revealing his transformed state.

"**An Oni! In this day and age? Impossible!**"

Jin draws his drumsticks, and readies to fight when.

"Jin wait, if you fight here Sota could get hurt, we need to draw this thing away!"

Jin nods and while he sheaths his weapons he starts backing up slowly towards his friend always keeping his eyes on the demon before him.

"Sota, run to the hidden well and get Inuyasha, Jin's tough but he's still a rookie when it comes to fighting monsters. Just tell him that there are jewel shards here, that should be more than enough to attract him!"

"I have to go in that spooky well!"

"You can do it! Jin lets go!"

"We have faith in you little buddy!"

Jin whips around picks up Kagome bridal style and rushes off as quickly as possible. While Jin's Oni form is no were near as fast or as strong as Inuyasha, he could definitely give modern Olympic athletes a run for their money. The two make their way down the stairs, the masks blobish body slithering behind them only a few steps away.

With that outta the way Sota runs as quickly as he can to the well, and stares down into the inky blackness below.

'_The well is linked to the past. Just throw yourself in with all your might_.'

"I can do this!" Shouts Sota and before common sense can regain control of his brain the leaps into the well, and hits the bottom with all the collective grace of a hailstone.

After prying himself off of the ground Sota looks around and sees the exact same surrounding as before.

"Why'm I still here? What went wrong!"

Sota starts digging at the ground in desperation. "I've gotta dig through! The mask is after sis and Jin, and only I can help them!"

Suddenly a bright light starts shining all around Sota, and the next thing he knows there in front of him in all his "glory" is Inuyasha. Cutting a very heroic figure for once.

"You're Inuyahsa!" exclaims Sota.

"In the flesh kid. Now whadda you need help with?"

~downtown~

With his demonic strength and speed Inuyasha is able to put the most experienced parkour practitioner to shame. Leaping from one rooftop to the next spanning dozens of city blocks with each jump.

"Just hold on tight kid."

They then land on the roof of a passing truck and hitch a ride.

"Do you know where to find Jin and my sister?"

"Sure I do! I can pick up scents from miles around with this nose!"

"Well Kagome cut her hand and Jin is this weird armored thing."

"I know, I could smell the blood back at the well, and when Jin's transformed he reeks of ashes. I'll rescue both of them before they get into too much trouble."

Sota then thinks back to yesterday when Kagome was talking about Inuyasha.

'I'll tell ya what he's like, he's whiny and a show-off and a total egomaniac. The guys a total pain.'

'_This can't possibly be the same guy, right now I feel like Inuyasha's the only guy I can trust_.'

Some distance away at a construction site Jin has managed to climb up to a high floor. Kagome clinging to his back, the oni slowly reaching his limit if the labored breathing was anything to go by.

Kagome glances nervously behind them, knowing the flesh-eating mask is not far behind them.

'_Inuyasha's not here yet, what's taking so long_?'

Then the rotten brown blob that is the masks body shoots up the side of the I-beams landing in front of the two runners.

"**Now hand me the shards of the Shikon Jewel!**"

Jin get's ready to go into attack mode when who should show up but,

"_**Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!**_"

With incredibly perfect timing Inuyasha leaps in and slices the masks makeshift body in two. Inuyasha then lands next to the two other teens kneeling down so Sota can safely climb down.

"Sis!"

"Sota!"

"Hey what's with the tears shrimp? I though you said you weren't afraid!"

While Jin treats Inuyasha to a DiNozzo, Sota rushes over to his sister and gives her a hug.

"Don't worry little bro, Inuyasha and Jin will destroy that monster for us and this waking nightmare will be over"

"Yeah I'll get on that but before I get on with my part in this rescue, this might be an appropriate time for an apology don't you think?"

Everyone just stares at Inuyasha for a moment while he glairs at Kagome.

"Me apologize for what?"

"For what! For putting my back out that's what!"

"Oh, that. Okay, I'm sorry! How's that?"

"You call that an apology, it's not like you just stepped on my foot!"

"Yeah well you'd probably put up the same amount of fuss if she did!"

"You're a man too aren't you, you're supposed to be on my side! Well if this is the kind of reception I'm going to get maybe I'll just leave."

"You can't just leave us here! Besides, the mask has a jewel shard don't you want to add it to our collection!"

Sota stared in disbelief as the three argue like, one wants to say 'old married couple' but seeing as there's three of them it's a little askew to the vernacular.

'_what's going on, just a minute ago Inuyasha and Jin were so cool, and now Inuyasha acting like a spoiled brat and Jin isn't much better. What happened to my heroes?_'

Meanwhile the mask has managed to pull itself back together and gurgle at the heroes.

"**Who dares to attack me!**"

"Inuyasha the mask has a shard in its forehead go for it."

"Hold it K-chan. Hey big brown and grotesque mind telling us who you are so we can properly mark your tombstone?"

"**I am the flesh eating mask, many ages ago I was carved from a great tree that had a jewel shard embedded in its wood. Since my creation I have craved human flesh and devoured by victims. However the flesh I consumed would rot and become useless quickly, so I need more jewel shards to create a new body one that is whole and everlasting.**"

Kagome looks at the deceivingly innocent jewel fragments in her hand. "So that's why the mask is so desperate to get the shards of the sacred jewel!"

"Don't worry K-chan that thing won't live to see tomorrow if I have anything to say about it!"

Inuyasha curls his hands the claws lengthening in anticipation. "I don't know how many humans you've eaten so far. But I think it's time you go on a diet!" With that the Hanyo leaps at the mask fist cocked back ready to go. He takes a swing at the mask but then the mask splits into two Inuyasha's fist getting caught in the semi-solid mass of its body. The two halves then sprout needle sharp teeth and clamp down on Inuyasha's wrist like a bear trap.

"**You've fallen into my trap, now you'll never escape me!**"

The mask sinks deeper into the brown liquid of its body dragging Inuyasha with it trapping him inside.

"Damn it, I should've known better."

"Don't worry pal I'll get you out, I just hope you're outfit is as fireproof as I think it is."

Jin draws his clubs and readies for battle, his face quickly shifting to an oni grin for his favorite attack. "_**ONIBI!**_"

A stream of purple flame rushes out of Jin's mouth towards the liquid body of the mask with the smell of cooking flesh soon permeating the building. However the mask itself rejoins itself abandons its body and rushes towards Kagome. The girl brings her free hand up to protect her face from the mask. '_I can't let this thing get the shards._'

"Jin, Sota take the shards and run."

She passes the shards to Sota who catches them.

"Right, K-chan. Come on little guy lets go!"

Sota climbs up onto Jin's back and the Oni takes off like an Olympic sprinter. Meanwhile the mask abandons it's attack on Kagome and goes for Sota and the shards.

"Guy's it's right behind you!"

Sota looks down at the little bottle in his hand. '_that thing is after this bottle. Maybe I should throw it away, no that won't do, we gotta make sure it doesn't get these jewels!_'

"Jin go faster!"

"Don't really have anywhere to go kid."

Sure enough they're on the edge of the floor, one more step and they'd plummet to their doom. And with the mask right behind them it seemed pretty hopeless.

"Don't worry kid this things gotta get through me first!" Jin growls setting Sota down and drawing his clubs. He begins to focus the power of fire and pure sound flowing into the Ongekibo. Then the heads are covered in reddish purple flame. "_**Kibojutsu Rekkadan!**_"

Jin then swings his clubs and from them launches two large fireballs colliding with the mask and causing a tremendous explosion. The mask was stunned hanging in the air limply.

Jin then grabs his belt buckle and hurls it at the mask, sticking to it and growing to taiko size.

"YOSH! _**IKKI KASEI NO KATTA!**_"

Kagome seeing what's going on yells over at her brother. "SOTA, COVER YOUR EARS!"

Sota while still very confused at what was going on does as his sister tells him.

Jin then rears back and strikes the buckle with both clubs, once, twice, three times, four times. Again and again every blow echoing across the city. And catching the attention of two strangely familiar figures.

"You hear that?"

"Yeah, but there are no percussion guys in this city, are there?"

"Whatever it is we need to check it out."

The two start running towards the construction site. Where Jin is getting ready for his finishing blow. He pulls back charging as much power as he can into the clubs and puts one last blow into the buckle, the mask gives off one last agonized scream before exploding into hundreds of splinters the jewel shard falling to the ground which Kagome then quickly picks up. With the masks destruction it's composite body evaporates freeing Inuyasha and leaving nothing more than a large brown stain on the floor.

Jin wipes his brow in relief the transformation ending leaving him feeling like his body was made of lead.

"Jin you okay?"

"Yeah, K-chan I'm fine, a little wiped but fine, I don't think I can get into a big fight like that for a long time."

Sota gapes in awe, "Jin you destroyed the mask!"

"Hah, yeah, pretty cool huh? Still got those jewel fragments?"

"Yeah right here." Sure enough in Sota's young hand is the bottle safe and sound.

Then the sun starts to rise, the morning birds start to sing.

"Inuaysha are you alright?"

"Yeah Kagome, I'm fine, how's your hand?" Oddly enough there was not a single ounce of sarcasm in that question.

'_that's weird, when did Inuyasha start being so nice? I mean not so nice, but kinda nice. And maybe it's the morning light but he seems pretty cool there. Wait a minute morning light?_'

"OH, NO! it's morning already and Jin and I didn't study! Come on Jin we gotta go!"

Kagome grabs Jin by the wrist and starts dragging him back down the building.

"Thanks for the help Inuyasha, you be sure to be back down the well before Jin and I get back from school, and Sota you take those jewel shards home okay!"

Inuaysha stares at where the other two just disappeared.

"What just happened?" He looks down at Sota to see if the little guy can answer his question but Sota is staring at the ramp too an odd look on his face.

"I've got a new hero!" He whispers in awe.

Meanwhile a short distance away standing on the roof of another building are two figures, who in the morning light seem to be very similar to Jin.

"Well look at that Todoroki-san. We've got a newbie in town, and that other guy reeks of demon genetics."

"Yes Habataki-san but you saw who it is didn't you?"

"Yeah, I had no idea sempai had oni blood in his veins, so what do we do now?"

"What else make a report to the bosses, and see if we can get him in the fold."

The figure known as Habataki pulls what looks like a CD from a case attached to his belt, and taps it with a tuning fork. Then the disc unfolds into a small metallic bird.

"You know what to do little buddy, now go!"

The bird lets off a little caw and takes off.

"So wanna race to school?"

"You're on, no wings though!"

So we now know there are Oni in the modern era too and from the sound of it they're people we know. The question is who exactly, and who are they sending that message to? Well we'll learn a little more next time on Inuyasha and the power of pure sound, the soul piper and the mischievous little soul. See ya then.


End file.
